On the 31st of October, we held our second insight series session of the academic year. Hosted by BBC’s Mark Clemmit, we delved into the world of disability sport and spoke to the CEO of Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby and GIS Advisory Board member, Jason Brisbane. Also on the call was Lorn Mayers, GIS student and advocate for disability sport.
In his role, Jason’s main remit is to create opportunities for people with disabilities, but says, “A good percentage of that is educating people through entertainment or social media partnerships, and showing people what's out there.”
In disability sport, one of the main challenges is the way people regard it, with Lorn saying, “The stigma is definitely still there.”
Part of this is an assumption that, as an athlete who used to play elite sport, it’s easy to make it to elite para-sports: “Because I’ve always competed at a high level, when that injury happened, it was a conversation of ‘you'll become a Paralympian now’, but it's not that straightforward.”
For athletes who are trying to make it to a high level, funding is part of the reason why, with Paralympic sports sharing a £344 million investment pot with Olympic sports until 2028.
“Starting off in Paralympic sports, not everyone has access to a scholarship or external help, and it’s especially difficult when it comes to funding for day-to-day life… Until you're podium potential, it's quite a struggle.”
With Jason saying the UK disability sport scene has “the best infrastructure in the world”, the one thing he’d do to improve the industry is to hold more regular major events. “It would mean more people can stumble across the sports. This happens with the Paralympics but that's only once every four years, so if we can have more para-sport major events that are well marketed and televised, it would make a huge difference.”
As for Lorn, his suggestion revolves around media coverage. Similar to what Jason was saying, coverage peaks every four years around the Paralympics, but in between this time, the sports don’t receive much attention.
“Increased media coverage would help people's understanding of sports but also have a trickle-down effect on increasing funding.”
Before his injury, Lorn had played American football to a very high standard, with some labelling him Britain’s best prospect. Since then, he has taken up f44 shot put, which he competes in regularly. Doing this after being told by doctors that he’d never walk again, Lorn is a role model to many who are in the position he was once in, and volunteers at various schools and charities to “Show young people they do have options within disability sports.”
Getting more young people into disability sports is something Jason works on daily, but the opportunity to do so isn’t always there. “An extremely poor amount of children with disabilities in schools have access to PE.
“Institutionally, we don't prioritise sport as it is, and if you don't have enough non-disabled kids playing sport in school already, then the children with disabilities are definitely not getting access to sport as well. There's a long way to go in terms of getting real equity.”
Learn more about our upcoming Insight Series sessions here.
Article by Zak Anani
