Steadward's radical plan would mean that both able-bodied and disabled competitions would take place side-by-side and both sets of athletes would be able to enjoy the kind of atmosphere that gripped this city during the Olympics last month.

He told the Vancouver Sun: "I believe what we need to do is look at the full inclusion of Olympic and Paralympic [Winter] Games together.

"The athletes are still separate, but they can share the village, the transportation, all of the expertise that is here.

"Why wait 10 days and have to re-energise the spirit that was in this city and this country for two-and-a-half weeks just last week?

"If we could have been incorporated in that whole situation, which I think can happen, what a wonderful presentation.

"We want to take advantage of their [the Olympics] structure and success and it is also a way for us to become integrated and a part of the whole superstructure of sport in the world.

"I mean, why reinvent the wheel?

"They've got good sponsors, good media support, good rules and regulations and technical elements."

Steadward, the founder of the Canadian Sports Fund for the Physically Disabled in 1979, does not believe that it would be possible, though, to combine the Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

He said: "Summer, when you're dealing with 15,000 athletes, would be near impossible.

"It would stretch accommodation and transportation, but I certainly believe it could happen within the Winter Games."

Steadward served as the first President of the IPC for 12 years before retiring in 2001 and is a former member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

He told the Vancouver Sun: "I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and have to pinch myself because I look at what the Olympics have achieved in nearly 120 years, and we are just 20 years old, going from 40 to 175 nations."