London Games highlights ‘integration’ question

London: As the London Paralympics draw to a close, with record ticket sales, bumper crowds and the highest profile in the Games’ history after a successful Olympics, talk has again turned to merging the two events.

But any joint competition is unlikely to happen soon, as the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) governing bodies recently signed an agreement to keep the current system until 2020.

“That (holding an integrated Olympics and Paralympics) is something that we’ve not discussed either internally or with the IOC at this stage,” IPC president Philip Craven told reporters in a recent interview.

The Briton, in office until 2017 and then hoping for a fourth and final term, did not rule out integration but predicted that it would be “way into the future” and “definitely not before 2028”.

Certainly, talent is no longer a factor when it comes to elite athletes with a disability competing against their non-disabled counterparts at the Olympics and other events.

Gold medal-winning cyclist Victoria Pendleton said teammate Sarah Storey proved the point, after she just missed out on the Olympics and set a Paralympic time in London that would have won her a non-disabled World Championship silver.

“She competed for Team GB as an able-bodied athlete at the World Championships and in the Paralympics and there’s no reason she couldn’t compete as part of the Olympic team,” the British rider said this week.

“She proved she can compete as an Paralympian and an able-bodied Olympian.”

This year, South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius — a 4x100m relay World Championship silver medallist in 2011 — made history by becoming the first double-amputee to run in the Olympics, making the 400m semi-final and relay final.

Polish table tennis player Natalia Partyka, born without a right hand and forearm, also played in both events, while Pistorius’ compatriot Natalie Du Toit, a single below-the-knee amputee, competed in the 10km open water swim in Beijing.

But having the cream of Paralympic athletes at the Olympics is one thing.

Opponents of integration have said that combining the world’s two biggest sporting events in terms of participation would be even more of a logistical headache for organisers — and make it difficult to sustain public interest.

A record 4,200 athletes from 165 nations took part in this year’s Paralympics, with 503 gold medal events across 21 disciplines in 20 sports.

In the Olympics, there were some 10,500 athletes from over 200 countries and more than 300 finals in 39 disciplines across 26 sports.

Opponents maintain that combining both events would mean a larger athletes’ village and more venues, with the distinct categories in Paralympic sport to group athletes with similar impairments likely to cause scheduling problems.

At the Paralympics, for example, there are 15 separate 100m finals for athletes with visual impairments, single and double below-the-knee amputees to upper limb amputees and those with cerebral palsy.

“It is not a practical situation. There are too many things,” Jason Hellwig, chef de mission of the Australian Paralympic Committee, said on Wednesday.

“You can’t have a sports event with 750 gold medals in one mega, continuous strain of activities. People couldn’t stand that.”

Athletes themselves are broadly against the idea, concerned about a “diluted” competition programme which would have less focus on disabled sport and events like boccia and goalball that have no Olympic equivalent.

British wheelchair racer David Weir, who competes in Diamond League athletics meetings, said: “I can’t see it (integration) happening. The programme is too big.

“Some of the minor sports would be lost and that’s not fair... We don’t want to get rid of the Paralympics. I just don’t see the point,” he told a pre-competition news conference on August 28.

Pistorius agreed. Speaking on the eve of the Games, he said: “The (Paralympic) Games are already very big. To feature Olympic and Paralympic athletes and sports in one place at the same time for an extended programme would be a challenge...

“I don’t know if it’s something that would ever be possible. The Olympics is a warm-up for the Paralympics. I’m as proud to be a Paralympian as an Olympian.”