Craig Spence, IPC's Communications and Marketing director, held an awareness workshop for Lima 2019 ©Getty Images

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) communications and marketing director Craig Spence has held an awareness workshop for next year's Parapan American Games in Lima, where 1,850 athletes from 33 countries are set to compete. 

Spence spoke at the awareness workshop aimed at promoting Para-sports and Paralympic competitions to local and global sports journalists.

The workshop was part of a meeting of the Lima 2019 Pan American and Parapan American Games Seventh Coordination Committee, with members of the IPC and Americas Paralympic Committee (APC) also in attendance. 

A total of 17 sports are due to be contested in the Games, scheduled to take place next year from August 23 until September 1. 

This will be the sixth edition of the Parapan Games since they were first held at Mexico City in 1999. 

Journalists also visited the construction site of the National Sports Village, the Games' largest venue.

The awareness workshop was organised to promote Para sport and Paralympic events to local and global journalists expected to cover the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima ©Lima 2019
The awareness workshop was organised to promote Para sport and Paralympic events to local and global journalists expected to cover the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima ©Lima 2019

"If we think in conventional sports, we are sure that everybody gets involved in them because they know the rules and the athletes," Spence told delegates.

"Therefore, our first challenge is to inform about Parapan American Games: who the athletes are and how the sports are.

"Generally, when you see people with impairments, you feel compassion because we focus on what they can’t do.  

"What we do through Para-sports is changing the approach to what they can do: ability rather than disability. 

"In that way, the emotion will quickly change from compassion to respect."