Quins & The British Paralympic Association

By RugbyBird
July 3 2003

As you should all now be aware, Quins have chosen the British Paralympic Association to be their nominated charity over the next two years. If, like me until a couple of months ago, you know very little about the BPA and/or the Paralympics themselves, read on . . .

The Paralympic Games and Athens 2004:

• In September 2004 4,000 Paralympic athletes will travel to Athens to compete in the Paralympic Games, the parallel event to the Olympic Games.
• The BBC is covering the Games and plans are to include 3 hours of live coverage each day.
• The Sydney Paralympics 2000 inspired over 1 million spectators and 300 million television viewers to watch athletes from 122 countries compete for glory.
• Athens will welcome Paralympic athletes from around 130 countries, as well as 2,000 team officials.
• Over 3,000 media representatives will cover the Games while approximately 1,000 technical officials and 15,000 volunteers will provide assistance.
• Fourteen sports on the Paralympic programme are shared with the Olympic Games: archery, athletics, basketball, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, judo, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis & volleyball.
• The four ‘unique’ sports that are played at the Paralympic Games are boccia, goalball, powerlifting and wheelchair rugby.
• World Records are comparable with those of Olympic athletes:
  • Canadian athlete Donovan Bailey’s Olympic Record in the men’s 100 metres is 9.84 seconds. The Paralympic Record of Ajibola Adoye, a Nigerian arm amputee, in the same event is 10.72 seconds.
  • The 10,000m wheelchair World Record set by Hans Frei of Switzerland is over 5 minutes faster than Ethiopian Haile Gebreselassie’s able-bodied World Record over the same distance.

British Success

• Britain is one of the most successful Paralympic nations in the world.
• The victorious team of 214 British athletes finished second in the medal table at the Sydney 2002 Paralympic Games with a total of 131 medals (41 gold, 43 silver and 47 bronze)
• Britain competed in 16 sports, and medalled in 11 of them.
• Tanni Grey-Thompson repeated her Barcelona feat of four wheelchair gold medals to become Britain’s most successful athlete of the Games.
• Sydney 2000 also produced a new set of British Paralympic stars, including Lee Pearson who won three from three possible gold medals in the equestrian competition.
• Teenage sensation Lloyd Upsdell began what could be a long and successful Paralympic career with a golden sprint double and two World Records.
• David Roberts was Britain’s most successful swimmer of the Sydney Paralympics with three gold medals.

The History of the Paralympics:

• In 1948 neuro-surgeon Sir Ludwig Guttman used competitive sport as a means of rehabilitating spinally injured Second World War veterans at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury.
• On the day of the Opening Ceremony of the 1948 Olympic Games in London, the Stoke Mandeville Games were founded and the first competition for wheelchair athletes was organised.
• Olympic style Games for athletes with a disability were organised for the first time in Rome in 1960, immediately after the Olympic Games - these are considered the first Paralympic Games.
• Since 1988 the Paralympic Games have always taken place as the same venues as the Olympic Games.
• They have now evolved into the second largest sports event in the world, comparing only to the Olympic Games in size.

The British Paralympic Association (BPA)

• Formed in 1989 and was the first Paralympic Association in the world.
• It exists to enable Britain’s elite athletes with disability to get to each Paralympic Games
• The BPA works under the direction of the Chief Executive who reports to the Board of Trustees.
• It has a small permanent staff based in Croydon and a small number of Performance Managers who work with athletes and squads around the country.
• Its work is supported by volunteers.
• Unlike Whizz-Kidz who have 40 fundraisers, the BPA has only 1 - Jane Young.
• Operational activities include managing relationships between UK disability sports bodies, liaising with international Paralympic Associations, representing Paralympic sport nationally etc
• Performance activities include scouting for talent, coaching schemes, medical support for athletes, sports scientists, nutritionists etc
• Paralympic Games specific activities including planning, selection, acclimatisation camps, transport, provision of specialist kit and team clothing, communication etc

Costs:

• To carry out all its activities and prepare the best British team for the Athen’s Paralympic Games in 2004, will cost the BPA as follows:
  • 2003/4 anticipated expenditure £847,542
  • 2004/5 anticipated expenditure £1,346,336
• Examples of specific costs within these overall figures are:
  • £6,000 is the cost to get an athlete, and potential medal winner, to the Athens Games (inc. travel, kit, accommodation, medical & coaching support, communications and the expenses of volunteer helpers etc.
  • £10,000 is the cost of the Wheelchair Rugby team’s holding camp in Liverpool immediately prior to leaving for Athens
  • £35,000 is the cost of a 2 day conference for all 200 athletes, coaching and medical staff in the Paralympic squad to be held as part of planning for success in Athens
  • £75,000 is the cost of all the planning and reconnaissance activities in 2003 and 2004 essential in the preparation for the Athens Games.

So, as you can see, it is a HUGE undertaking to get a team of athletes to the Paralympic Games and the BPA do an absolutely phenomenal job given the limited resources they have.

Quinssa are committed to helping Quins raise a very significant amount of money for the BPA. It is an extremely worthwhile cause and I would ask each and every one of you to do all that you possibly can to help us do this.

Just imagine what a great feeling it will be each time you see a British athlete winning a medal in 2004 and knowing that you helped them achieve that.

Further details can be found on their web site at www.paralympics.org.uk.