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IN TOUCH – Gold! At The Tokyo Paralympics; Gyms Doing Good Things

TX:Ìý 31.08.2021Ìý 2040-2100

PRESENTER:Ìý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý PETER WHITE

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PRODUCER:Ìý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý BETH HEMMINGS

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White

Good evening.Ìý It’s been a shower of gold for Team GB at the Paralympics and visually impaired athletes have their own golden couple – medals for Laura and Neil.Ìý We’ll be hearing more about them in a moment.Ìý And, if you’re not quite a gold medallist yourself yet, but just want somewhere to ginger up your fitness a little, well we’re hearing about a gym where they’re going out of their way to support their blind and partially sighted customers.

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But first, over to our reporter in Tokyo – Mani Djazmi – who’s been covering a very successful Paralympics for us, not to mention starring on the Today programme.Ìý And by the sound of it, Mani, you’re at poolside, are you?

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Djazmi

I am indeed, I’m at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre, sitting just above the end that the swimmers touch to win gold or to be touched out of gold.Ìý It’s the end of the races at this wall down below me.Ìý I was a bit worried actually, last week, that we might not have too many medals to talk about and we might have to hype things up a bit but little did I know what was to come around the weekend.Ìý First, in the Velodrome, Aileen McGlynn won a silver, although she may have felt that she lost it because she was in the gold medal position until the very last moment when she was pipped by a Dutch rider.Ìý James Ball took a silver but he finished behind Neil Fachie, who regained his 1,000 metres time trial that he lost in Rio and then about a quarter of an hour later Neil’s wife, Laura, won her race and they were really the stars of the weekend of a very fruitful weekend for Britain with their two gold medals.

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White

Well, it’s an irresistible story, isn’t it, a couple both winning their golds and you featured them last week but perhaps they couldn’t have dreamed that it would work out the way it has.

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Djazmi

Well, Neil said that after he lost his gold – I mean he still won a silver in Rio – but after he didn’t win the gold, he said he’d thought about giving up and he lost motivation a bit.Ìý But he came back and he said that he would have to break the world record in order to win that medal and that’s exactly what he did, he broke the world record.Ìý But it all came good and they are the British golden couple.

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White

Right.Ìý Well, we’d better bring you to where you are which is in the pool – well you’re not in the pool but beside it – and a race has obviously just begun.Ìý Again, our swimmers have been getting gold as well, one in particular.

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Djazmi

Yes, today, actually, a couple of bronzes for Stephen Clegg and Hannah Russell.Ìý But Hannah Russell began – really began the gold medals for visually impaired British athletes last week when she took gold, herself, in her first event.

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The other guys have done very well, we’ve had another gold medal today and a world record for Reece Dunn, that’s his second gold medal.Ìý But, as I say, there were two bronzes here – Hannah Russell’s chipped in with another one.Ìý Still a few more days to go.Ìý I always think that to be able to defend your title takes some guts really, there must be a lot of pressure if you’re the defending champion and Hannah was the defending champion and she still is.

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White

And then there’s the judo where Mani, we usually perform pretty well but I think this time they may have excelled even their own expectations.

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Djazmi

Well to borrow a phrase from another sport – judo came home in the Olympics and Paralympics – Japan, of course, is where the sport was invented and Britain picked up a couple of medals in the quite short competition – it was only three days long.Ìý Elliot Stewart, who listeners may remember from a few weeks ago on this programme, he won a silver in the up to 91-kilogram competition but Chris Skelley won a gold in the up to 100-kilogram competition.Ìý And I was lucky enough to speak to both of them a day after their victories on Monday and it meant that I could ask them a question that I’ve always wanted to ask gold and silver medallists.

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Interview with Elliot Stewart and Chris Skelley

Djazmi

What do you do with your medal when you go to sleep on the first night, I mean do you have it under your pillow, are you like a six-year-old child who’s just got their favourite football top for Christmas and has to wear it to bed, what do you do?

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Stewart

We’ve got similar [indistinct word], we don’t really like getting it out and showing it, we should really, it’s the medal that we’ve always wanted to have, always dreamed of.Ìý But I had on my bedside table last night and I woke up this morning, rolled over and saw it and I was like – it did actually happen yesterday, it actually happened.Ìý I don’t know about you?

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Skelley

I didn’t get any sleep last night, I don’t know – in the middle night I was trying to get to sleep and I was like – where is it – and I had to put my light on and try and find it and then put it near my bedside table in case I lost it.Ìý So, yeah, it was quite a surreal moment.

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Djazmi

What are your medals like, have you got them with you?

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Stewart

They’re very big, they’re quite big, quite chunky.Ìý Yeah, they’ve got braille on the one side with the Agitos logo engraved inside.Ìý And then on the other side it’s got the Tokyo Paralympic symbol with a star effect with – I think it’s flowers in it, I think it’s the cherry blossom I think on the one side.

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Skelley

Everything’s raised as well, so like even like the writing as well – Tokyo 2020 – it’s raised up as well.Ìý So, everything’s – all about feel and it’s quite nice because as you would know it’s such a – you miss certain things but this is really nice to feel in your hand.

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Stewart

One of my favourite things about it is on the side, the gold medal has got one engraved dot on the side and the silver’s got two and the bronze medal will have three.Ìý For people that have got severe sight loss, they can feel what they’ve achieved – it’s great.

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Djazmi

And what’s flat life been life?

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Skelley

Laughing – you deal with this one.

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Stewart

It’s been an experience.Ìý No, it’s been great fun – it’s been fun.Ìý We’re always together, we always train together, we always work hard.Ìý These flats aren’t huge that we’re living in and there’s four of us living here at the minute, all four athletes living here.Ìý We’ve all got our own little booth, we’ve got one little living area.Ìý Yes, it means stepping on each other’s toes, four visually impaired athletes that weigh over 81 kilos – all of us – so pretty big lads.Ìý But we’re all used to it, aren’t we, and we’re all close – we’re such a tight team.Ìý

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Skelley

It’s been good fun.Ìý We just have a laugh all the time and it’s been a lot of fun to experience this together.

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Djazmi

And are you all partially sighted in your flat or are there some totally blind people in there as well?

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Stewart

I’ve probably got the best vision out of everybody, so I can see colours, shapes, objects, just everything’s blurred, I can’t focus on anything.Ìý Probably our worst will probably be Dan, he struggles with sight a lot, so he’s got parts of his vision that are blocked out.Ìý And then there’s Jack, who’s got tunnel vision, so he can’t see around, so he can only see straight in front of him.Ìý So, but altogether, as a unit, we make one good eyesight.Ìý We’ve got Jack around, he reads the signs for us, yeah, we get around.

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White

One good eye between them, that’s a line you could probably only hear and put out on the In Touch programme.Ìý That’s a real peep behind the scenes with Elliot Stewart and Chris Skelley.

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Mani, I just want to have – just a very quick peek behind your scenes because I’ve done a few of these Paralympics in my time and I know it’s quite a tough gig for a blind reporter and I just wondered what it’s been like for you under these unusual circumstances, you know, smaller teams of reporters, covid restrictions because I know how much help I used to get – what has it really been like?

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Djazmi

Yeah, there isn’t much to see behind my scenes Peter because I’ve been pretty restricted in terms of where I can go.Ìý I’ve been here for two weeks and I haven’t been to any more than three places, including my hotel.Ìý This aquatic centre is the only venue that I’m allowed to go to and the International Broadcast Centre, where we have an office.Ìý I have an assistant who looks up things for me, who guides me, who describes things like reactions of winners and losers in the pool.Ìý But, you know, there’s no atmosphere, there are no fans, no one’s milling around outside, there’s no Olympic Park to walk in and just soak things up for 10 minutes.Ìý I’m already looking forward to Paris.

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White

Anyway, at least you’ve had some gold medals to look forward to.Ìý Mani, thank you very much indeed and let’s hope the gold keeps coming.

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Now you might not regard yourself as a gold medal winning athlete, necessarily, like some of the ones that we’ve just heard from, perhaps you just dabble in the odd bit of exercise to stay fit and healthy.Ìý But for many, that’s not as easy as it should be.Ìý According to Sport England more than half of people with a visual impairment are pretty inactive.Ìý Of course, there could be a wide range of contributing factors to that, could be inaccessible gyms and leisure facilities or perhaps just our own attitudes towards them, believing that we can’t get the necessary support when we do go and ask.Ìý But under the Equality Act, gyms, leisure and sport centres must make reasonable adjustments for disabled visitors and members.Ìý And tonight we have proof that it can indeed be done, if you push hard enough.

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Chandni Sony is a self-professed gym enthusiast.Ìý Chandni, you’ve had trouble in the past finding a local gym that’s willing to make the requirements for you, just tell me about some of the problems you’ve had.

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Sony

My biggest challenge when it comes to accessing gym has been the fact that I can visit the gym but, unfortunately, because of the way the machines are, they’re all touch screen, I can’t really access the machines myself, I need somebody to help me and I guess, also, to manoeuvre between the machines as well because there are so many obstacles when you are in the gym – like people leave equipment in the middle and so on.Ìý The general attitude is that well fine, we’ll let you get in but you have to bring your own carer, there won’t be any help.Ìý That was my past experience, that I was told to basically bring a carer along so that they can help me operate the machines until I found my local gym which was Westway Sports and Fitness and now known as Everyone Active.

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White

Yeah and so, as you say, you found a gym and you say they’ve been really good in assuring that you can work out safely.Ìý Just talk me through what happens, then, when you want to go and work out there.

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Sony

So, the way the gym works is that I have to book a session every time I want to come in and a member of staff will come with me for the duration of the time I’m there in the gym.Ìý They will make sure that they operate the machines for me, they will make sure that I’m safe while I’m working out, they’ll manoeuvre me around the machines, they’ll be adjusting my body positionings and so on.

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White

Let me go to Koroush Valiseh, he’s a fitness manager at Everyone Active gym, the one that Chandni’s been talking about.Ìý What happens logistically when a blind or partially sighted member says that they want to join your gym or says that they’d like to come and work out?

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Valiseh

In the reality of what it is, it is not that excessive to say oh it’s very labour intensive.Ìý It is more like finding the right time to book members into, to bring them in.Ìý If I had a personal training session with a client I would meet them in reception, bring them to the gym and do the exercise with them.Ìý But when you’re dealing with visual impaired individual, you will have to take that [indistinct words] a lot higher, okay what is the barriers in front of them, the sense of any hazards.Ìý There would be a little bit more – paying more attention towards technique.Ìý When someone is running and at a high pace, you have to visually be more present yourself.Ìý So, yeah, in a sense there is a bit of extra paying attention but the reality from someone who’s been doing this, especially on our side, [indistinct words] been doing this for years, the staff are very trained and tailored to do the job.

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White

Chandni, can I just ask you; you’ve been to quite a few different gyms that you say aren’t always accessible, what do you think should be the minimum requirement really to ensure that someone like you can access fitness?

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Sony

I’d say the minimum requirement should be is actually meet the person and if there is a possibility provide them with someone, a member of staff, who can be with them for the duration of their time.Ìý I understand that cost may be an issue but surely if you can have some dedicated session – I’m not saying that I’ll be coming to the gym 10 times a week but maybe having like one or two sessions, particularly dedicated to people who are like myself, who may struggle to operate the machines.Ìý So, that could be the minimum.Ìý And may be in the longer run with the technology getting better the machines may become voice activated and then we may not need as much help from the staff.

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White

Now there is an initiative that aims to ensure that gyms and leisure centres are applying these standards, it’s called the Inclusive Fitness Initiative, created by the Activity Alliance.Ìý Caroline Constantine is from Right Directions, they carry out these IFI accreditation assessments on behalf of Activity Alliance.Ìý It’s all a bit complicated, I know, but essentially, you’re carrying these out.Ìý Caroline, just tell us what the IFI mark is and how gyms and gym goers benefit from it.

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Constantine

IFI is about an audit, we go in and we do a mystery visit, so we look at the accessibility, automatic doors, lifts, accessible toilets – all those sorts of facilities that every leisure centre and gym should have for people with a disability or a long-term health condition.Ìý And then what we do then, after a mystery visit, that’s all scored, we then go into the leisure centre announced, so they know we’re there, and we look at their processes and their policies, we look at the training of their staff to see that their staff have had equality or disability awareness training, we look at how accessible their buildings are and their gyms.Ìý Talk to the staff.Ìý So, it’s an all-round audit to see how good they are at helping and working with people to ensure they’re able to go and exercise and get fit.

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White

And how do they – how do they tend to come out of it because we’ve heard what sounds like a very good example but we also hear quite a lot from visually impaired people on In Touch who have the kind of problems that Chandni described at the beginning, so what’s your overall sense of what’s happening in gyms at the moment?

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Constantine

I think some are an awful lot better than others.Ìý It’s all generally down to the people that are running the centres.Ìý So, for example, you just talked to Everyone Active, it’s a very big company that have got great corporate policies and training and most of the leisure centres are generally owned by local authorities.Ìý And we also work with Sport England to assess all leisure centres – or the majority of leisure centres – and it’s all about uniting the country and raising awareness and ensuring that everybody can participate.Ìý So, certainly my advice to everybody would be phone up your local leisure centre, talk to them, they have to, by law, make sure as reasonably practically as they can make your visit accessible and work for you.Ìý And I think the main thing is to go in and ask.

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White

Just briefly, Caroline, your IFI mark, it’s not compulsory, why would a gym apply if they’re not actually required to?

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Constantine

Well, an awful lot of leisure centres that do apply want to demonstrate to their local authority or their community or on their website that they are accessible.Ìý It’s a great tool to demonstrate to the councils and the public as well.Ìý So, it’s a good badge to have and if you go on the Activity Alliance website, you can see which leisure centres or gyms have got the kite mark.

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White

Chandni Sony, Koroush Valiseh and Caroline Constantine, thank you all very much indeed.

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And don’t forget if you are still a bit worried about visiting your local gym due to a lack of perceived support, you can request it under the Equalities Act by speaking to the gym manager.Ìý And if the gym is still a frightening thought, and perhaps you’re able to exercise at home instead, the charity British Blind Sport have an online library of home workouts on their website.Ìý

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And that’s all for today.Ìý We’d like your thoughts and experiences about anything you’ve heard on tonight’s programme.Ìý You can email us at intouch@bbc.co.uk or leave us a voice message on 0161 8361338 or go to our website bbc.co.uk/intouch where you can download tonight’s and previous editions of the programme.

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From me, Peter White, producer Beth Hemmings and studio managers Richard Hannaford and Jonathan Esp, goodbye.

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