By Duncan Mackay

Monday EmoghawveApril 26 - A call for the Paralympics to be merged with the Olympics has been made by Monday Emoghawve, President of the Nigerian Paralympics Committee (NPC). 


He claimed that at the moment disabled athletes feel isolated because they are not part of the Olympics.

"The coming together of Olympics and Paralympic at the same time will not only be the nice thing to do, but will make the Games more competitive and interesting for both the athletes and the spectators," Emoghhawve said.

"The physically-challenged athletes themselves will feel honoured and see themselves part of the society rather than feel isolated under Paralympics Games."

Previous calls for the two Games to be combined have been fiercely resisted by senior figures within the Paralympic Movement.

These have included Eva Loeffler, the daughter of Dr. Ludwig Guttman, founder of the Paralympic Movement, and the Mayor of the Athletes' Village at London 2012. 

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Britain's 11-time Paralympic gold medallist, have also argued that the events should maintain their own identity, a claim supported by Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of the British Paralympic Association. 

Natalie du Toit New Delhi 2010Paralympic stars like Natalie du Toit were an important part of the Commonwealth Games programme at Delhi 2010

But Emoghawve claimed that the example of the Commonwealth Games -  where disability sports are incorporated into the main programme, although there are a lot fewer sports - demonstrated what is possible.

"The Commonwealth Games is like a kind of Games that international community are using to test run whether the abled and disabled athletes can compete in the same venue at the same time," he said.

"Because we don't want people to call one abled sports and the other disabled sports.

"We want both the Paralympics and Olympic Games merged together to become one like Commonwealth Games.

"The Commonwealth Games have proved it wise that it is possible to have both abled and disabled athletes compete under one umbrella in a tournament."

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