Last week one of Britain's most celebrated sports journalists, Simon Barnes, started an article in The Times with the following sentence: "The problem with disabled people is that they make able-bodied people feel bad."

The line was written as an opening to his article about Oscar Pistorius (pictured below) and whether or not he should be allowed to compete in the Olympics Games as well as the Paralympics.

Barnes, drawing on his own life experience, makes a cogent and, in my view, compelling argument in favour.

In addition to the arguments around Oscar – what can't be argued is his supreme ability as an athlete – the article and its opening line highlights a much wider issue. It is something I have reflected on a great deal in the past year, when I had the absolute privilege of being appointed as chief executive of the British Paralympic Association (BPA). And it is something that is particularly relevant today – just 50 days to go until the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

That means we are just 50 days from over 4,200 athletes from over 165 countries starting 10 days of world class sporting competition. With ticket sales proving to be incredibly strong, and Channel 4, the British station, showing real commitment and passion in its planned television coverage, it means those athletes will be competing in front of huge crowds and audiences.

What makes this important is that all those athletes all have one thing in common – the fact they are disabled. It is self-evident that the vast majority of spectators at the venue or watching at home will not be. So somewhere over the course of the competition, for those non-disabled viewers there might be the discomfort Barnes (pictured bottom) describes.

Maybe.

But if there is I don't think it will last long. It will be replaced rapidly by the feeling you get watching any sport played at the highest level.


The thrill of the competition and the uncertainty of outcome. The wonder at the level at which the protagonists are operating. And, most of all, the joy of witnessing success – by which I mean not just the winning of British medals, of which I hope there will be plenty, but of every athlete achieving their goal.

Perhaps after that spectators will reflect again on the nature of the athletes' impairments. But by that stage perception will have been challenged and potentially already changed. By then it will be the achievement of the athlete that inspires – defining them clearly, resolutely, by what they can achieve and are able to do, rather than by what they cannot and are not.

What this means is that the Paralympics can, in fact, be a force for good beyond being a sporting spectacle. It can and should have a positive impact on wider society. Certainly that is our belief within the BPA – and it is an agenda on which we are firmly focused when thinking about the future. How can we use the inspiration and influence of London 2012 to challenge perceptions among non-disabled people, and inspire real and lasting change across wider society?


To believe sport can do this is not a naive belief in its power. Nor is it to ignore the many challenges and deep-rooted problems faced by disabled people in society. It is based on an absolute belief that sport can impact, by cutting through and presenting a very positive, accessible image of disability. It starts with the sport and the excellence of the athletes is paramount.

That is why we, as an organisation, will remain focused primarily on our role supporting athletes and sports in preparing not just for London but for Sochi 2014, Rio 2016 and beyond. Without success on the field of play there is little credibility in the challenge. Inspiration cannot easily follow without the initial surge of wonder.

There is no doubt, however, that such inspiration can bring change. One of my favourite photographs is one taken during the 2010 Vancouver Paralympic Games: it shows Canadian kids, probably about 10 years old, playing hockey in the street – except they have taken their skateboards and are playing while sitting on them. Having seen ice sledge hockey (pictured above) at the Paralympics they are imitating it in the street – for no other reason than clearly they thought it looked a fun, exciting game; that it looked cool. It is images like that which makes me think that we, collectively, have an opportunity to make a difference.

Today 50 more athletes were added to the ParalympicsGB team for 2012. The team size going to London will be, at 292, by far the biggest ever, and we are competing in every sport and discipline. There will never be a better, more high profile and significant platform for Paralympic sport in this country, and we must use that to drive awareness, change perception, and bring about change.

Most of all we must not accept this as the end. In my view it is not right to talk about "legacy" from the London Paralympics. The word suggests a high water mark, the point from which you cannot aspire further but instead must find ways to sustain that which you have.

That cannot be right for the Paralympics. London, instead, should be the catalyst to more: on the field of play as we target success at future Games but also off it as we seek to involve more disabled people in sport, and engage and challenge the perceptions of non-disabled people. We should talk not of legacy but momentum: a surge of activity, resource and commitment that brings more than we have now.

Despite the real challenges that exist there is no reason not to be optimistic that it can happen.

That is why the two words "momentum" and "change" sum up well what London 2012 can bring. And why I believe that the Paralympic Games can do more than any other event or movement to make Simon Barnes' opening line redundant.

Tim Hollingsworth is the chief executive of the British Paralympic Association. You can follow him on Twitter by clicking here.