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You and Yours聽- Transcript 大象传媒 Radio 4 |
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TX: 29.11.04 - Paralympics PRESENTER: LIZ BARCLAY |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT.聽 BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 大象传媒 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. BARCLAY Now you may remember the Spanish Paralympic basketball team was stripped of the gold medal it won in Sydney in 2000 because of the 12 players only two had learning disabilities, the rest were cheats and as a result athletes with learning disabilities were banned from taking part in the Paralympics.脗 The ban, announced early last year, meant that athletes already in training for Athens 2004 couldn't compete.脗 The International Paralympic Committee has been trying to agree to a definition of a learning disability ever since.脗 It had threatened a permanent ban but voted on Thursday night in Cairo to continue working to find a solution. In February last year we talked to Bill Stuart, whose 23-year-old son Alan is one of the athletes disqualified by the ban.脗 Bill Stuart is in our Glasgow studio.脗 Bill, you told us last year that Alan had been a recluse with little social life and that getting involved in the sport had changed his life, what effect has the ban had on Alan? STUART It's had the reversal with the sport had to do at the beginning.脗 It did - he was thinking about packing in the sport altogether, I think he was just annoyed at the fact that they'd really done it.脗 Instead of punishing the country that the people were cheating they punished everybody. 脗 But he's continued to stick at his training and hopefully now they'll be able to come at it again, if they lift the ban then he should be fit enough to go to the next Paralympics if they allow them back into the next Paralympics. BARCLAY But because of the ban his sources of funding for training dried up didn't they? STUART That's correct yes. BARCLAY So how difficult has that made things for him? STUART It made it very difficult, it meant he had change some of his training venues, some of the competitions that he would have attended were no longer available because they came under the ICP rules.脗 So they had to change the competition structure and things like that. BARCLAY So you must be very pleased then that the committee has voted, in fact they voted 74 to 18 to keep trying to come up with a definition of learning disability - so you must be pleased that there's a will to find a solution? STUART Well it's a step in the right direction but every country's got different ways of judging what a learning disability is and to get every country to decide a structure that everybody's going to agree with, that's when the problems are going to arise. BARCLAY And David Congdon joins us from MENCAP.脗 David, are you surprised by this vote, many people were predicting that the continuing ban was on the cards? CONGDON I think we were surprised but from MENCAP's point of view we did a lot of lobbying behind the scenes and also worked hard with Inclusion International to make sure that the members of the IPC were very aware of the very real and strong anger there was throughout the learning disability community about the effect on the ban on athletes, such as Bill's son, because it really was very unfair and an injustice.脗 Yes we were surprised but very pleased that this now gives an opportunity for all parties to work together to find an acceptable solution. BARCLAY The International Paralympic Committee, as Bill has said, has got to take the considerations of so many countries into - well into consideration when they're coming up with the definition, how close do you think that they are going to get to agreeing? CONGDON I don't think they're close at the moment but we're very confident that where there's a will there's a way and we've said that for the last two years in putting pressure on all the parties.脗 If there is an overwhelming commitment to find a way to enable learning disabled athletes to compete that can be found. BARCLAY It's not just about how the countries though define learning disabilities individually, it's about how the sports define them individually too isn't it? CONGDON That's absolutely right, I mean it's frankly - it's less about a definition of learning disabilities - that's relatively easy - it's about the impact of the disability on individual sports. BARCLAY Such as? CONGDON Well a good example I think is probably the difference say between running say and swimming for instance.脗 A mother of one athlete - Kathy Collins, mother of Neil Collins - he's a runner, runs the 800 metres and she puts it like this - We all remember Kelly Holmes outstanding success in the Olympics where she ran three laps behind everybody else and then came from behind and won, that is about tactical running, not necessarily the fastest time.脗 She makes it clear that her son wouldn't understand the tactics he will just run hell for leather to run as fast as he could to try to win but that may not be the best way of winning.脗 Whereas swimming - different issues again.脗 So therefore you have to devise a regime of verification that's linked to the individual sports, we believe that is possible. BARCLAY Possible but likely to have happened in time for the next Paralympics? CONGDON We think the decision the IPC have now taken where they're going to take an active interest in it we stand a good chance of getting a solution.脗 We will certainly, with other organisations, put a lot of pressure on all the parties involved to find a solution so that athletes can compete yet again. BARCLAY David Congdon from MENCAP and Bill Stuart thank you both for joining us. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 大象传媒 is not responsible for external websites |
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