Gareth Davies

Oscar Pistorius, "the fastest man with no legs", who has become an ambassador for the Paralympic World Cup which takes place this year in Manchester on May 18-24 has revealed that he would not want his legs back. They were amputated at the knee when he was a baby, as he was born without the fibulae in both legs. "If someone was to ask me now 'Would you like your legs back?' I would have to say 'No' - because growing up as an amputee has given me my drive.... made me the person that I am." Pistorius, 22, from South Africa, aims to compete at both Paralympic and Olympic Games in 2012, and this year, at the able-bodied World Athletics Championships in Berlin. Pistorius has become an ambassador for the BT-sponsored Paralympic World Cup, but part of his role will also involve mentoring British hopefuls in the lead-up to 2012. "It's a great privilege. The World Cup is an important stepping stone in my own 2012 preparations. I also love the way the British have embraced paralympic sports," he said, praising the GB Paralympic team in Beijing. "The GB Paralympic team stood out in Beijing. Athletes like Eleanor Simmonds [the 14-year-old swimming gold medalist] will change the stereotypical view of disabled people over the next few years." Pistorius himself has become a global standard bearer for the Paralympic movement is keen to make a film of his remarkable life story. He has been approached by Tom Hanks, among others, but Oscar jokes he wants Johnny Depp to portray him. "We'll see who eventually gets the 'Oscar' to play me," he joked.

The latest issue of the Paralympian has just landed on my desk with a resounding thump. The reason ? There are some heavyweight issues in there. This year, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) celebrates 20 years since its inception, and with the growth of the Games, and its success in Beijing, come fresh issues, both organisational, and political, which will need to be dealt with by Paralympic president Sir Philip Craven. One of those is the re-inclusion of athletes with intellectual disability in future Paralympic Games. I understand that the IPC are happy that significant developments have been made to help certify the classification system for athletes in this category. The issues arose back in 2000 after the Athens Games. Spain was stripped of their intellectual disability basketball gold medals soon after the Games closed after Carlos Ribagorda, a member of the victorious team and an undercover journalist, revealed to the Spanish business magazine Capital that most of his colleagues had not undergone medical tests to ensure that they had a disability. The IPC investigated the claims and found that the required mental tests, which should show that the competitors have an IQ of no more than 70, had not taken place under the eye of the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE). Ribagorda alleged that some Spanish participants in the table tennis, track and field, and swimming events were also not disabled. Ribagorda insisted the Spanish Federation for Mentally Handicapped Sports (FEDDI) signed up athletes who were not intellectually disabled in order to "win medals and gain more sponsorship". The team were officially disqualified and was ordered to return the gold medals.
The classification system currently being explored is based upon a scientific approach and is compliant with the IPC Classification Code. Both the IPC and INAS-FID [the governing body of intellectually disabled athletes - International Sports Federation for Persons with an Intellectual Disability] will meet at the IPC General Assembly in November 2009, where it is expected that the re-inclusion of athletes for London 2012 will be ratified. In 2000 Britain took 11 athletes with an intellectual disability to Sydney and they won five silver and three bronze medals all from the sports of athletics and swimming. GB Paralympics are known to support the re-inclusion of the athletes, but have called for stringent testing.

As a footnote, since the last blog, outlining the disparity of awards in the New Year's Honours list, a campaign has been launched online to try to get an award for Stephen Miller, who has won three Paralympic gold medals. The campaign has been launched after Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson highlighted the lack of parity in awards for Olympic and Paralympic gold medalists. Miller, a 28-year-old from Northumberland, has never been recognised despite having made his debut in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics when, as the youngest member of the British athletics team, he won gold in the F32 club event. He retained his title in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004 and a silver medal at Beijing last year. Miller is said to be "philosophical" about not being in the Honours List, yet the athlete who remains a role model in his community should be recognized.