British Paralympic target - come second?
Discussion
Britain's Paralympic team have been set a minimum medal target by UK Sport of 103 from at least 12 sports at the London Games.
UK Sport has also confirmed that the aim is to maintain second place in the medal table.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/1929...
Now I may be being hopelessly old fashioned here, but isn't the aim in all sport to win, rather than just try and hang on to second..?
UK Sport has also confirmed that the aim is to maintain second place in the medal table.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/1929...
Now I may be being hopelessly old fashioned here, but isn't the aim in all sport to win, rather than just try and hang on to second..?
Does anyone know why we punch above our weight at the Paralympics ? I know it was started at Stoke Mandeville but that was 50 odd years ago. Facilities we're generally poor with so do we have a good coaching programme ? Do the Paralympians get a decent slug of lottery money ? It's brilliant that we are good at it...just interested.
The UK in comparison to the vast majority of countries (maybe only 3 or 4) has excellent facilities for any type of sports person
In the Olympics I woudl imagien most countries did not enter an athlete in every sport because its not a done sport in that country. whereas in the UK I would every single Olympic sports is available to do as a recreational thing
so whilst we may say we have s
t facilties - we dont really. we may not have as many world class facilties or rsources but we have the advantage of having sports open for everyone to try and progress in
i would imagine that is exemplified in Paralympic sports where we have good facilities for disabled people - even more so than a lot of other countries.
i bet in a lot of poorer countries you can count yourself lucky to get a wheelchair let alone become a wheelchair basketball player.
In the Olympics I woudl imagien most countries did not enter an athlete in every sport because its not a done sport in that country. whereas in the UK I would every single Olympic sports is available to do as a recreational thing
so whilst we may say we have s
t facilties - we dont really. we may not have as many world class facilties or rsources but we have the advantage of having sports open for everyone to try and progress ini would imagine that is exemplified in Paralympic sports where we have good facilities for disabled people - even more so than a lot of other countries.
i bet in a lot of poorer countries you can count yourself lucky to get a wheelchair let alone become a wheelchair basketball player.
The Stoke Mandeville thing does come into it - sadly we still have a large number of young and fit amputees which gives us a better pool of potential athletes.
But a lot of it has to do with culture. I'm proud to say that the Paralympics are going to sell out in London for the first time ever - as a country we are much, much better at recognising the achievement of our disabled athletes than pretty much anyone else in the world.
But a lot of it has to do with culture. I'm proud to say that the Paralympics are going to sell out in London for the first time ever - as a country we are much, much better at recognising the achievement of our disabled athletes than pretty much anyone else in the world.
Mojooo said:
The UK in comparison to the vast majority of countries (maybe only 3 or 4) has excellent facilities for any type of sports person
In the Olympics I woudl imagien most countries did not enter an athlete in every sport because its not a done sport in that country. whereas in the UK I would every single Olympic sports is available to do as a recreational thing
so whilst we may say we have st facilties - we dont really. we may not have as many world class facilties or rsources but we have the advantage of having sports open for everyone to try and progress in
i would imagine that is exemplified in Paralympic sports where we have good facilities for disabled people - even more so than a lot of other countries.
i bet in a lot of poorer countries you can count yourself lucky to get a wheelchair let alone become a wheelchair basketball player.
This - there arent many sports in the Games that you couldnt go and get your kid playing tomorrow. Thats pretty rare and is why we have a rep at most events.In the Olympics I woudl imagien most countries did not enter an athlete in every sport because its not a done sport in that country. whereas in the UK I would every single Olympic sports is available to do as a recreational thing
so whilst we may say we have s
t facilties - we dont really. we may not have as many world class facilties or rsources but we have the advantage of having sports open for everyone to try and progress ini would imagine that is exemplified in Paralympic sports where we have good facilities for disabled people - even more so than a lot of other countries.
i bet in a lot of poorer countries you can count yourself lucky to get a wheelchair let alone become a wheelchair basketball player.
zetec said:
Cheib said:
Does anyone know why we punch above our weight at the Paralympics ?
It's most probably because in this country those with disabilities are treated fairly, equally and are encouraged to do well. This may not be the case in alot of other countries?
I can't remember which major power it was - possibly China - who claimed not to have any disabled people when invited, early on, to participate in the Paralympics... disability sport in other countries is decades behind the UK, with the result that basically standards are still rising - quite fast currently - so you'll see world records broken very regularly. The other 'symptom' of this is that Paralympian careers are still vastly longer than their non-disabled counterparts - there isn't as much pressure from the up-and-coming generations. Jim 'the swim' Anderson is competing this year, aged 49 - that's unheard of for a nondisabled elite swimmer and although he's a fantastic athlete (rightly won SPOTY a few years back), what it mostly tells us is that even in the UK, talented young disabled people are not coming to competitive sport in the numbers they should.I'm a bit ignorant to Paralympic sport. Can someone help me out with a few questions?
1. What determines what sort of disability renders someone 'able' to do an event? For examle a person with an arm missing but both legs still working will run the 100m faster than someone with no legs.
2. Could I compete in lots of events if I just had my finger missing?
3. Do mentally disabled people count or just those with physical disabilities?
1. What determines what sort of disability renders someone 'able' to do an event? For examle a person with an arm missing but both legs still working will run the 100m faster than someone with no legs.
2. Could I compete in lots of events if I just had my finger missing?
3. Do mentally disabled people count or just those with physical disabilities?
McFsC said:
I'm a bit ignorant to Paralympic sport. Can someone help me out with a few questions?
1. What determines what sort of disability renders someone 'able' to do an event? For examle a person with an arm missing but both legs still working will run the 100m faster than someone with no legs.
2. Could I compete in lots of events if I just had my finger missing?
3. Do mentally disabled people count or just those with physical disabilities?
There are classes for each group of disabilities designated so that no athlete has a clear advantage as per your finger question.1. What determines what sort of disability renders someone 'able' to do an event? For examle a person with an arm missing but both legs still working will run the 100m faster than someone with no legs.
2. Could I compete in lots of events if I just had my finger missing?
3. Do mentally disabled people count or just those with physical disabilities?
Yes if finger skateboarding was an Olympic sport. Otherwise missing a finger isn't really a disability in most sports.
LDs are another class - as above - IIRC.
Mojooo said:
In the Olympics I woudl imagien most countries did not enter an athlete in every sport because its not a done sport in that country. whereas in the UK I would every single Olympic sports is available to do as a recreational thing
Every sport may be available to do in the UK, but there are lots were we don't reach Olympic standards and therefore do not send athletes or teams. London was the exception because, as host nation, we automatically qualified for all events.rhinochopig said:
There are classes for each group of disabilities designated so that no athlete has a clear advantage as per your finger question.
Yes if finger skateboarding was an Olympic sport. Otherwise missing a finger isn't really a disability in most sports.
LDs are another class - as above - IIRC.
Makes sense. So does one event have 7 'different' events to allow for each category of disabled? For example, 100m sprint with 7 different categories to allow for the different severeness of disabilty. Yes if finger skateboarding was an Olympic sport. Otherwise missing a finger isn't really a disability in most sports.
LDs are another class - as above - IIRC.
McFsC said:
rhinochopig said:
There are classes for each group of disabilities designated so that no athlete has a clear advantage as per your finger question.
Yes if finger skateboarding was an Olympic sport. Otherwise missing a finger isn't really a disability in most sports.
LDs are another class - as above - IIRC.
Makes sense. So does one event have 7 'different' events to allow for each category of disabled? For example, 100m sprint with 7 different categories to allow for the different severeness of disabilty. Yes if finger skateboarding was an Olympic sport. Otherwise missing a finger isn't really a disability in most sports.
LDs are another class - as above - IIRC.
Cheib said:
Does anyone know why we punch above our weight at the Paralympics ? I know it was started at Stoke Mandeville but that was 50 odd years ago. Facilities we're generally poor with so do we have a good coaching programme ? Do the Paralympians get a decent slug of lottery money ? It's brilliant that we are good at it...just interested.
modern spinal injuries rehab is based on the Guttmann model although the sports aspects are rather diluted in acute SCI rehab these days in part due to the way in which the NHS is not prepared to fund Nursing and physio staff to go on jollys with patients and write it off as 'study leave' for the staff , combine this with the rather different demographic in spinal injuries ... but Guttmann's legacy only really explains the paraplegic / tetraplegic success ... or does it ?
the UK punches above it;s weight in both the olympics and the paralympics and to a point this ends up as a bit of self licking lollypop , the UK attitude towards Rehab/ enablement / care of people with long term conditions ( especially congenital ones) is very much of 'normalisation' with adaptations ...
amputee sports in the last 10 years among the coalition nations has gained a big boost through Bush and Bliar's little exploits
McFsC said:
I'm a bit ignorant to Paralympic sport. Can someone help me out with a few questions?
1. What determines what sort of disability renders someone 'able' to do an event? For examle a person with an arm missing but both legs still working will run the 100m faster than someone with no legs.
2. Could I compete in lots of events if I just had my finger missing?
3. Do mentally disabled people count or just those with physical disabilities?
1. there are classes and you are scored into the classes on the basis of functional assessment by independent doctors, physios and coaches 1. What determines what sort of disability renders someone 'able' to do an event? For examle a person with an arm missing but both legs still working will run the 100m faster than someone with no legs.
2. Could I compete in lots of events if I just had my finger missing?
3. Do mentally disabled people count or just those with physical disabilities?
2. unlikely as you'd be scoring 4.5 or 5 for many sports ( that use the 5 point scording scale) and 5 is effectively able bodied.
3. they've been in and out due to various issues over scoring - also there's the whole classes thing - while someone with cerebral palsy and intellectual impariment might be quite profoundly impaired physically, someone with down's for instance would rate relatively highly compared to an able bodies athlete although there are certain features of the condityion that would impair performance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheating_at_the_Paral...
Some team sports for disabled players have a team limit on the grading as well as a maximum grading for any one player so playing a 'more able' athlete in one position means you need to play a less able athlete in another position
more on sports for people with intellectual disabilities
the wikipedia entry mentions the cut off for inclusion being IQ below 75
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Sports_...
http://www.inas.org/
the wikipedia entry mentions the cut off for inclusion being IQ below 75
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Sports_...
http://www.inas.org/
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