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Australia is celebrating the return of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, but there are urgent calls for the debate to shift towards investing in local athletes with disabilities.
This follows recent media reports highlighting the country’s lowest Paralympic medal ranking in 36 years.
Australia did not move from its ninth position in the official medal count.
The 1988 Paralympics in Seoul was the last time Australia placed this low, in 10th place.
Dane Cross is the COO of Sporting Wheelies.
They focus on leading community programs that support the long-term participation and sport pathways of people with disabilities.
He applauds the achievements of Paralympic athletes, but says more needs to be done for grassroots programs like his.
“I think this reflects a poor investment of funds in terms of funding mainstream sport to ensure inclusion in the programs. However, Parisian sport and the level of participation in Parisian sport within these mainstream sports only constitutes ‘a small goal or “
Dane himself lives with a disability: he suffered spinal cord damage after an accident in 2001 while playing touch football.
Dane Cross says other organizations like his across the country have been left behind.
Her organization advocates for investments in grassroots sports programs that provide continued opportunities for people with disabilities to play sports.
“It’s the grassroots that has been left behind. A lot of effort and resources go into high performance, but if you start from the grassroots, you create that pathway, that experience, that skill development that leads to high performance, and that’s what’s missing.”
Dr Geoff Dickson is Director of the Center for Sport and Social Impact at La Trobe University.
He talks about the low medal totals following recent media reports highlighting Australia’s lowest Paralympic medal ranking in 36 years.
“It has certainly given rise to – what I would call – a legitimate conversation about Australia’s performance at the Paralympics. For me, it brings together at least two issues. One is that we are performing so well in what I call for effective body defense at the Paralympics, and Australia would like to think that we provide at least a reasonable to good level of support for people with disabilities. as important at the Olympic Games and yet, relatively speaking, fighting to achieve it is at least at that level at the Paralympic Games.
Mr. Cross is focused on promoting a culture that embraces difference and celebrates diversity.
“There is a lack of collaboration between traditional sport, between high-level sporting organizations and representative bodies. We just need to get in the room and figure out how to solve this problem and how to create more effective pathways from the local level up to high performance, as well as opportunities.”
Dr. Dickson talks about the role of government in training future athletes.
“Ahead of the 2024 Paralympic Games, the Australian Government announced a significant increase in funding for Australia’s Paralympic programs. In essence, they announced an additional $55 million in funding, which is more or less equivalent to doubling the amount of money the federal government is investing in Paralympic sports.
Dr Dickson believes Australia would have been in a better situation if appropriate funding had been allocated earlier.
“What is notable is that the announcement took place in July, a few months before the Paris Paralympic Games and is therefore not necessarily a reaction to relatively poor performances.”
He says one of the problems is that people in general only care about the Paralympics for 14 days every four years.
It highlights the importance of normalizing the participation of people with disabilities and creating an inclusive culture.
“The good news for the Paralympic community and for the wider Australian community is that the Paralympic movement in Australia has essentially doubled its funding in recent months. Of course, it was too late to translate into any sort of meaningful Paris 2024 , but the hope is that by 2028 and certainly by Brisbane 2032, Australia will once again become an influential player in the world of Paralympic sport.
Dane Cross, of Sporting Wheelies, says more people must be given greater opportunities to meet the Government’s target when they bid for the 2032 Olympics.
“It’s all about doing more, more, but it’s really about achieving the government’s target or promise when they bid for the Brisbane Paralympics. They promised 500,000 disabled people would participate in sport by 2032 across Australia, and to get there we need more and more opportunities.”
