Paralympians should be appreciated as elite athletes

[richard]

It was a shame that 400 Paralympic athletes at the World Cup in Manchester did not attract bigger crowds By Steve Cram

You could be forgiven for thinking it's hard to get away from Manchester just now. However, at around 6pm on Sunday my exit from the City of Manchester Stadium car park was effortless and as I eased through the east end of the city its streets were almost empty. By contrast hordes of red-shirted or red-backed fans enjoyed their drinks in the evening sunshine outside every pub I passed.

As a football fan I was happy for them but I also reflected that it would have been nice to have seen a few of them in the athletics stadium I had just vacated. The city had played host to the Paralympic World Cup over the previous five days and, while the Premier League season climax undoubtedly would take centre stage, it was a pity the Paralympians performed in front of such sparse audiences.

With 400 athletes from 45 countries competing, including the world leaders China, the event's stature is unmatched outside of the Paralympic Games. That being said, and despite the recent positive public-attitude survey released earlier this month carried out on behalf of the London 2012 organising committee, there is obviously still a lot of work to be done to generate spectator support at such events.

The four sports on show were wheelchair basketball, track cycling, swimming and athletics and with Beijing looming there were plenty of stories to follow and interest should be high. It appears, though, that there is still a reluctance on the part of many to accept the sporting validity of what they are watching and focus instead on the spectacle of a person with a disability trying to overcome adversity and therefore acting as figures of inspiration.

The latter observation may still be true but increasingly the performance levels in many of the sports contested is of a very high calibre and is continuing to improve. You only have to spend a small amount of time around the hotels and venues to realise you are in a high-performance environment every bit as challenging and unforgiving as with their able-bodied counterparts.

They are elite athletes with a different set of parameters to contend with but the language and attitude is familiar to anyone who has been around winners.

The well-documented story of South African swimmer Natalie du Toit last week is unlikely to be unique in the coming years. At the open water swimming championships in Seville, Du Toit finished in fourth place and in so doing qualified for the Olympic event in Beijing. She will also compete in the Paralympics a couple of weeks later in the pool.

While most have been following the saga of Oscar Pistorius and his prosthetic limbs it will be his compatriot who will compete in the Olympics first and judging from conversations with her she's certainly not going there merely to inspire. Having lost her leg in an accident in 2001 she recognises that her sprinting power will never match that of her competitors but the newly installed 10km open water event is very much the marathon of swimming and, as she notes, the further they swim the stronger her chances are.

Du Toit has no lottery funding to support her and pays for her coaching, relying purely on sponsorship. She talks as fast as she swims and meets every media request with relish. Her shoulders are broad enough to accept the iconic position her performances have propelled her into but her biggest desire is to be recognised for the athlete she is and not so much for what she represents.

When she talks about her world championship swim it's an excited account of personal achievement and only when she says "and then my coach handed me my leg" does it stray from the narrative of any other world-class athlete. You cannot ignore it but she doesn't dwell on it.

Not all Paralympians can achieve such high-level physical achievements but equally there are many who compete against able-bodied athletes on a regular basis as standards continue to rise. Beijing will be tough and London 2012 tougher still but their task will be a little easier with a touch more recognition and support from all of us.


Source
By Steve Cram
blogs.guardian.co.uk