Fife paralympian has high hopes for Rio 2016

by Ciaran Sneddon

This summer saw all eyes turned to London, as it staged one of the biggest sporting events in the world; the Olympics. With homegrown champions such as Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah storming to victory, the team spirit of Britons was running high. When the final note was strummed across the stadium at the closing ceremony, most thought that the best show on earth was over. But for some, it was about to start. It was now time for the Paralympics.

This event, the partner of the Olympics, is still a fairly new competition and celebrates the talents and athletic abilities of a vast number of disabled sports competitors. The games were officially introduced in 1960, at the games in Rome, and ended the prejudice of disabled athletes being forced to compete in the Olympic Games. Since then, the Paralympics have continued to grow, and this year saw a record breaking number of spectators at the event, and a record number of participating athletes.

The public opinion of the Paralympics is also growing, and there was certainly a buzz about it this year that sparked a new interest in the games. The inspirational stories of the athletes were incredible, and really brought the audience in close to the participants.

One such story is that of David Smith, a 2012 Paralympics champion rower, who has returned fighting strong after being faced with a vascular tumor in his spine that threatened to paralyse him for life.

David, now preparing for a record-breaking cycle around the world, said that he didn't think there was any difference between the Paralympics and Olympics.

"I don't see it as disability sport, I see athletes and I think that's what the British public see. They didn't come to see disability, and what they saw was athletes performing at the highest level. So I think it certainly has left a very positive impression on the public. It's come at the right time and had a very positive effect."

David had previously trained for the Olympics before he knew he had a tumor, but said that in some ways that being diagnosed was a relief

"For a long time I'd had medical problems that had been misdiagnosed so [I] was like 'Thank you very much.' I finally had an answer to what was 10-12 years of medical condition."

The Paralympics isn’t the only event promoting disability sport however. Right across the country, local disability sports associations are running different sports clubs for disabled participants, and helping to train them for events like the Commonwealth games, or the Paralympics. One such association is Disability Sports Fife, and I went along to the annual carpet bowls tournament held for disabled competitors from the local community.

The hall was a buzz of excitement during the competition, and the participants had a mix of competitive spirit and pure joy written on their faces.

As the prizes were given out at the end of the day, you could see how much the sport meant to some people, as they collected their trophies in a truly overjoyed style.

I spoke to Richard Brickley, President of Disability Sport Fife, who told me a bit more about what his organization does for the community.

“What we’re trying to do is first of all to get more people active, more often. We’re interested in children, young people and adults and we’re interested in all levels of physical ability.

“We just think we’re contributing as many other people are, to open doors and break down barriers to try and improve the quality of life of all members of the community, not just those that can excel. Some of these bowlers today have never won anything in their life, [and there were] some absolutely astounding performances today. They’ve obviously been practicing!”

Richard told me that new members were more than welcome to come and join any taster events they run covering a range of sports.

Disability Sports Fife is planning to send athletes to compete at the Commonwealth games in Glasgow and has hopes for the Rio games in 2016.

It seems that the profile of Disability Sport is rising, and the athletes themselves are continuing to break records and excel at what they do. But Richard Brickley concluded that it wasn’t just about winning prizes.

“You might be opening more than just a medal today. It’s about opening doors in local communities, and nobody wants to be sitting at home when they could be doing that.”