The Oparalympics Debate

The Paralympics are now in full swing: wheelchairs are smashing into each other like demolition derby, double leg amputee swimmers are obliterating my personal best times and Claire Balding has resumed her position right up in everyone’s grill. There is, though, more on-going debate surrounding the nature of the Games, particularly its exact purpose and identity, in comparison to the Olympics once it had gotten underway. Indeed, part of the discussion revolves around whether there’s any value in comparing the two events. Either way, the debate seems entirely healthy to me, as it’s an indication that, like a neurotic teenager (or ‘teenager’) the relatively new event is still growing and trying to figure out what it’s supposed to be. In One Tree Hill terms, the Paralympics is currently leaning against a palm tree, broodily gazing into the hazy sunset. Should it ask the Olympics out to the prom or go proudly its own way and arrive stag in its uncle’s motorbike?Clearly, the Paralympics are bigger and better than ever before. It’s likely to be the first to fully sell out; it’s being broadcast to over a hundred countries, and involves athletes representing a record 164 nations (eighteen more than in Beijing). There do remain some slight flaws in the competition though. Firstly, for an event that centres on promoting equality and displaying the potential of human achievement if given the opportunity, it’s a shame that poorer countries are so underrepresented. Cambodia, for instance, has one of the world’s highest ratios of amputees due to landmine explosions, but has only one wildcard entry for London. In Beijing, 51 per cent of competing athletes came from only nine countries. Although this stat has improved in London, with 40 per cent representing from the big nine, there’s still a long way to go.

Cambodian athletes constrained by their equipment

...in the paraphrased words of all reasonable humans across the world, Atos really should go f*ck themselves

Another problem that faces the Paralympics is the scheduling. The Olympics catches the summer break nicely (in all northern hemisphere countries that is), meaning that other than cricket (which, let’s be honest, we weren’t going to watch anyway), there’s little to contend with for sporting attention. The Paralympics currently takes place just after most major domestic football leagues- including the world’s most watched, the English Premier League- have resumed. In this country at least it means all us football fans have our heads stuck firmly in our brand new fantasy league teams (with one eye on the real-life team we actually support), with little time to spare for our loved ones, let alone other sporting events.

Furthermore, in the paraphrased words of all reasonable humans across the world, Atos really should go fuck themselves. As in, literally, there would be an overall net gain of well-being if each Atos member of staff were to spend their working hours genuinely attempting to have intercourse with themselves rather than metaphorically fucking the UK’s sizeable disabled population. How a company using biased interviews designed at forcing people off their benefits could ever even be considered as official partners of the Paralympics is beyond me. You may have read it all before but it’s worth reading again, such is the horror of it: around 70 per cent of people who appeal after being deemed fit to work by an Atos medical professional are successful in their appeal. Equally guilty of hypocrisy the moment he opens his mouth to promote anything resembling improvement in the lives of people with disabilities is David Cameron, who along with Ian Duncan Smith and George Osborne set the targets for Atos to work to. The latter’s reception at the Olympic Park on Monday provided a good spontaneous opinion poll for around 80,000 people at least. 

Others, though, argue that a merge (with the Olympic) would create a greater sense of equality and integration for the Paralympics

 Now that I’ve stepped off my high horse (it’s so cold and scary down here), I can return to the primary question at hand. Should the Paralympics remain a distinct event, or merge with the Olympics?

At the moment the Paralympics lie in a slightly awkward middle ground between total independence and complete integration with the Olympics, meaning it unfortunately runs the risk of maintaining secondary status. Pretty much like Scotland, opinion is divided about the issue of independence. A BBC World Service survey in March found that out of 10,000 people asked across nineteen countries, 43 per cent wanted the Paralympics to remain separate and 47 per cent wanted the two -lympics to merge. Out of the remaining 10 per cent, 6 per cent felt the issue was too complex to decide and 4 per cent couldn’t give a shit and wanted those twenty minutes back. (These statistics are 90 per cent accurate).

There are some who feel that the best way to promote and showcase the physical heights people with disabilities can achieve is to keep the Paralympics separate, creating more of an identity for the Games and providing worldwide focus. This school of thought also holds that were there to be a merge, it would actually turn into more of an acquisition, as the Paralympics would play second fiddle to the Olympics. Others, though, argue that a merge would create a greater sense of equality and integration for the Paralympics. International Paralympic Committee President Sir Phillip Craven (who’s opening ceremony speech was far less sleep-inducing than Jacques Rogge’s effort a month ago) acknowledges that it may be on the cards in future Games, although no sooner than 2024.

...we were treated to watching John Snow and Krishna Guru-Murthy over-politicise everything - referring to famine at least twenty times 

There is, though, also the practical issue that in order to accommodate all of the classifications- T43 (and other Terminator models), S8, C3PO and the like- the ‘Oparalympics’ would have to last up to a month. Imagine having to ‘work’ from home for a whole month?! Awful. One option would be to down-scale the number of Paralympic events, but that would seem to undermine the whole inclusive purpose of the competition.

Channel 4 have their best man on the case

So what about keeping the two Games distinct? Having opening and closing ceremonies for both, for instance, clearly distinguishes the events from each other, providing a platform to build anticipation and then celebrate to the sound of tone-deaf burnt out ex-rock and pop stars. Aptly, at London 2012 for the first time, UK television rights went out to tender for the Paralympics, which Channel 4 won (before remembering that it didn’t have any sports presenters other than eccentric horse riding pundit John McCririck , who would be guaranteed to make a string of highly offensive comments), creating further separation between the two Games. Rather than watching BBC’s Gary Lineker pun-tificate his way through proceedings, we were treated to watching John Snow and Krishna Guru-Murthy over-politicise everything - referring to famine at least twenty times - and give guests the unexpected grilling of a lifetime during the opening ceremony.

I’m going to reserve opinion and allow myself the luxury of just sitting back and enjoying the show

For me, further developing the Paralympics as an independent, worldwide sporting spectacle in its own right is the way to go for the moment. Given the scheduling issues previously mentioned though, my partially informed and inevitably flawed suggestion is that the Paralympics and Olympics should simply be swapped around. Doing so would make a clear statement about how seriously the Paralympics are taken, allowing it to gain much needed exposure during the summer break, while also giving the host city a chance to prepare for the even larger Olympics crowds.

For the remaining duration of the Games though, I’m going to reserve opinion and allow myself the luxury of just sitting back and enjoying the show… while tweeting snarky comments about Channel 4’s coverage obviously- I need some outlet.