The British team returned from the Paralympics last week after another golden Games in Beijing, but face increasing difficulties in identifying a new generation to ensure another second place when London stages the event in 2012. The widespread integration of disabled youngsters into mainstream education is laudable, socially and educationally, but the practice makes the selection and development of talent much harder for the Paralympics.
As more of the 146 countries that competed in Beijing focus resources on disabled sport, there is a growing problem in finding successors to the likes of competitors such as Dave Roberts, the Welsh swimmer who won four gold medals in China to bring his total in three Games to 11, the same number as Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson.
Phil Lane, the British chef de mission in Beijing, points out that young talent is now dispersed across the country, with disabled pupils doing PE alongside their able-bodied colleagues rather than attending specialist schools. Although he applauds the practice, he adds: “We need a real effort and a big drive to say, ‘Come on, this is a great chance for you, look what the guys have delivered in Beijing, you could be part of that team in 2012’.”
In specialist schools, youngsters have had more individual attention for sport and disabled sport in recent years has become more club-based, raising simple logistical difficulties in transporting prospective competitors to venues on a regular basis.
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Lane said that while he was in Beijing, he received e-mails from parents of disabled children eager to fulfil their physical potential and possibly participate in the Paralympics. He said: “We now need to get the right system in place. After what we achieved in Beijing, nobody will let us get away with anything less than second place in our home Games. You have to set your targets higher and better than what you have achieved, and that is what we will do.”
A total of 102 medals, including 42 golds, was extraordinary, said Lane, and exceeded predictions. As he pointed out, China, who topped the medal table, has 86.2m people who are registered disabled, far more than the total population of the United Kingdom.
Where Britain has increasingly benefited from integration is by frequently having disabled elite competitors using the same facilities and training methods as able-bodied athletes, as well as sometimes exercising alongside them. The aura of Britain’s successful sports in recent Olympics, such as cycling and rowing, has also been a motivating factor.
In the four disabled rowing events in Beijing, where the sport was staged for the first time at the Paralympics, Britain won two gold medals through single-scullers Tom Aggar and Helene Raynsford, who had already represented the British wheelchair basketball team and featured in The Sunday Times’ new advertising campaign in July.
The British team received a total of £29m in funding for Paralympic sport over the four years in the build-up to Beijing. This compares with the £235.1m for the Olympic sports. Now Lane is looking for a further hike in the build-up to London, something that will be negotiated over the next three months with UK Sport, the quango responsible for distributing lottery cash to Olympians and Paralympians.
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He said: “I have always said we deserve the same investment in coaching, sports science and back-up support the Olympians receive, and often we can share this. However, I would not expect the same amount of other funding (in individual maintenance and travelling grants) as the Olympians get because we do not have the same range of responsibilities."
For instance, disabled athletes go abroad far less frequently for competitions because there are far fewer of them. However, this has not stopped American Tony Iniguez, a wheelchair racer, from taking his claim for parity in funding and allowances from the United States Olympic Committee to the Supreme Court, claiming discrimination. He said in Beijing: “If we get a positive ruling, it will send a message and set a benchmark for others to follow.”
Another problem that will face the Paralympic movement in London is the classification of competitors. In Beijing, Britain’s Rebecca Chin was stripped of her silver medal in the discus after it was ruled she “no longer fits into a recognised International Paralympic Committee (IPC) class” because her cerebral palsy was too mild to be eligible for the Games.
The 16-year-old from Deeside, who has mobility difficulties with her lower leg, competed in the World Cup in Manchester earlier this year and was classified as being able to compete in Beijing. She finished 10th in the shot there but was disqualified after the discus because the viewing classifiers who scrutinised her in the warm-up and the event felt “they had seen considerable change”.
Tim Jones, the UK Athletics senior performance manager for disability, claims she has been “hung out to dry by the system”. London will face an even more acute problem in 2012 because the IPC is restoring a sixth class, intellectual disability, for people with an IQ of less than 75. The category was dropped after Sydney in 2000, when the Spanish basketball team was revealed to have only two eligible players. Some in the squad even had university degrees.