EDITORIAL

LOOKING AHEAD TO SYDNEY WITH COMMON SENSE

Atlanta was the latest stage on this exciting journey, embarked upon in Rome in 1960, which constantly poses the tremendous challenge of demonstrating that the Olympic ideals apply perfectly well to those persons afflicted with some disability. That the struggle to beat a personal best or set a new record, from the brotherhood that is the essence of sport, manifesting as it does the highest qualities of mankind, is not out of bounds for those men and women who, apart from being top competition athletes, also happen to suffer from some kind of handicap.

Whilst it is relatively short-lived, this Paralympic experience is nonetheless turning out to be truly spectacular in its results: both the purely sporting results (records, international involvement, number of athletes, etc.) and those relating to the internal organization and structure of the Movement, necessary to maintain it throughout the world. From the viewpoint of sports for the blind and visually impaired, both parameters offer us a progression that can only fill us with satisfaction. The athletes affiliated to IBSA have demonstrated - year after year - truly qualitative leaps in the question of performances and records, not to mention their progressively increasing relevance within the Paralympic family as a whole. Our Federation, as such, has been making enormous efforts to extend its activities to all countries, paying particular attention to those whose difficulties and shortcomings make the practice of sports for the visually impaired an objective plagued with obstacles.

The challenges...

In any case, and without giving way to hazardously optimistic euphoria, the overall balance has to be defined as radically positive. In just ten editions, the Paralympic Games have managed to open up a niche for themselves within the international sports structures, and nobody can now close off this space again. All this has been achieved despite the difficulties derived from the progressive "economicism" that inevitably surrounds an undertaking of this nature: it is the media that convert this great four-yearly sporting event into a spectacular display "without frontiers" and, in parallel, ADVERTISING and the resources provided by SPONSORING have become an indispensable element to make the running of the Games a feasible project.

Paralympic sport - often forgotten by the mass media from this perspective - has to struggle on in this way, and has done so valiantly in recent years, not just to reach the sporting standards demanded of elite athletes, but also in order to put these achievements across to the general public, and thus convince everyone that they undeniably deserve financial support and news coverage.

...And the media

In order to take on such an arduous task, all the determination and resources, both economic and human, we can muster will prove insufficient. From the worldwide pinnacle of sport, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), chaired by Juan Antonio Samaranch, great emphasis has been placed on the need for UNITY within the Paralympic Movement, so as to reach the goals set and continue on the path of progress. However, the very inexperience of this movement, together with quite a few misunderstandings resulting from same, has frequently led us to situations in which said unity is called into question, when one does not wish to follow the "I order, you obey" line of the harshest authoritarianism, which, on top of it all, is usually accompanied by a total lack of common sense.

We disabled athletes are people who, day by day, are striving and making great efforts to reach new goals, with professionality and self-denial. We therefore deserve the full respect of the organizational structures, devised and maintained precisely to facilitate the development of our sport, not to hinder it or merely impose directives, and which lack the slightest consideration for the specific circumstances surrounding the sports practised by people with different types of handicaps.

And yet this fact which appears so obvious, in recent times does not seem to be considered quite so evident in certain quarters. In this very edition, BSI places on record the confrontation that took place in Atlanta between the IPC and several International Federations, with IBSA at the forefront. Returning to the argument with which we began this commentary, the starting signal for the preparations for the next Olympics (which will culminate in Sydney in the year 2000) should serve, once again, to bring about positive consequences.

Let's recoup common sense, accept as being just what is only right, lay aside ridiculous personal attacks based on positions of strength, surely ephemeral, and get down to WORKING for our sport, for our athletes. There is a lot at stake.