"JOHN AND JUAN SHAKE HANDS"

Alberto Bravo "John and Juan shake hands"

Alberto Bravo Agudo Chairman of IBSA America

Every 4 years, John from the north and Juan from the south abandon their everyday routine, their friends, their city, their country and, driven by their dreams forged in such distinct geographical, political and economic surroundings - with Earth and Tartan, deprivation and abundance, yet with enthusiasm and enthusiasm, strength and strength - off they go.

When the Boeing has finished taxiing and the engines rev up to maximum power, all the Juans and all the Johns experience the same sensation..... this is what I will offer in my event. Despite such similar eagerness, with subtle differences in their points of origin, there still exist differences when it comes to demonstrating what they are capable of. Of course there is an infinity of reasons, but the Paralympic spirit does not seek excuses - it rebels against this! - and day after day, with no Tartan and on beaten earth, with Tartan and the best 'NIKE'; the enthusiasm is identical, John from the north and Juan from the south share the very same profound desire: to surpass themselves and reach the finish line faster than the day before. This yearning to compete against their peers and win and, right there at the finish, offer the heartiest handshake in the purest Olympic spirit which, as we are all aware, knows nothing of colour, nor east or west, nor rich or poor.

Sydney welcomed Paralympic leaders from 65 nations during the first week of November. The warm Australian organisers of the event put all their efforts into ensuring the success of the VII IPC General Assembly.

For the first time, America attended in force an event of these characteristics.

The representatives, mostly from the Caribbean, Centre and South - used to forming part of the omissions of the Paralympic Committee - were convinced they had valuable contributions to make and got going, knocking on doors, ringing bells and telephones, moving their governments, appealing to International Organisations and, in the end, there they were.

Perhaps they felt that, like the athletes Juan and John, all the leaders gathered together there would demonstrate their solidarity and generous sense of unity, with an absence of purely personal interests and the most impartial desire for equity.

Despite the patent disregard for the opinion of some delegates from developing countries, the startling use of underhand acts of arrogance and the undeniable irrationality of a small group who believe one holds on to power by force, I am sure that the aftermath of Sydney will afford the IPC smoother progress.

The new configuration of the Executive Committee is, I believe, closer to comprehending the needs of everyone. It will have to carry out a minute examination of each of the factors influencing future events, investigating the particular features of each of the continents and every country, pricking the conscience of all those governing bodies that regard us with indifference or, worse still, totally ignore our movement.

It is the task of the IPC, and all the federations that go to make it up, to strengthen the National Paralympic Committees, thus attempting to ensure that, in the year 2000, the results will be more on a par. This can only be achieved by working hard to boost the image of our athletes.

I would like to see John continue using the best 'NIKE', or the most modern 'QUICKIE', but we must get across the message in Juan's country that he too deserves and needs them.

Although it is patently obvious, I feel the need to express our - in my opinion, inescapable - commitment to contributing from IBSA America towards reasserting and boosting the Paralympic movement in the sector that corresponds to me, in my conviction of the need for respect for the independence of the rights afforded to us and the obligations we assume.

I also wish to express my warmest desires of success to the new IPC Executive and offer a hearty handshake to each of its members.

"CASTING-OUT NINES!"

Filippo Dragotto "Casting-out nines!"

Filippo Dragotto President of Organising Committee '97 European Athletics and Swimming Championships

I recurred to my memories of school arithmetic to formulate this title: indeed, in order to check that a calculation was correct, the method used (at least in my day in Italy) was the "famous" casting-out nines! By means of this calculation, simple yet precise, one could confirm - beyond a shadow of a doubt - the correctness of the calculation and the corresponding result. The European Athletics and Swimming Championships in Riccione constituted, in my view, such a confirmation of the validity of our legitimate aspiration: the full technical independence of IBSA!

Indeed, in his speech before the participants at the Opening Ceremony of the Championships, our President, Enrique Sanz, demonstrated and condemned the defects of the technical requirements of the IPC, referring to the infamous "Court of Miracles", and declared that the IPC-IBSA agreement, guaranteed and backed by the IOC President, J.A. Samaranch, had found a clear demonstration in these European Championships in Riccione of the validity of our undertaking: the blind, in order to fulfil themselves to the maximum of their possibilities and capabilities, must compete under regulations that respect their peculiarities!

In fact, apart from being run perfectly from a technical standpoint, thanks to the efforts of our three Technical Delegates - Messrs SCOBIE, HASLINGER and STRÖM - who followed most attentively the execution of the events, thus ensuring the precise fulfilment of the rules and their exact application, the Riccione Championships permitted the true "protagonists" to demonstrate to the full their possibilities, the results providing the tangible proof.

Ten World Records, 30 European Records and another 30 National Records, as well as dozens and dozens of personal bests, provided a clear demonstration - beyond any shadow of a doubt - that this is the approach to be followed with tenacity, if we wish the world sporting movement for the blind to enjoy a bright future.

But these irrefutable data lead me to make a further reflection: these results are also the fruit of a substantial change in trends: the results obtained by the athletes are no longer due to chance, nor to a lucky day! Rather, they are the result of an intense, appropriate training programme and also, above all else, denote a well-programmed national policy for the important events on the international sporting calendar, on the part of the European nations with adequate economic resources. And yet these important IBSA events .... are they regularly organised? are they adequately run at the organisational and technical level? Really, in order to be able to facilitate this renewed flourishing of sporting activities for blind and visually impaired persons, I feel it is essential to avail not only of a serious, worldwide planned programme, but also of an optimum organisation, based on the fundamental principles that ensure its validity: suitable installations, competent judges and an appropriate logistics organisation.

And I do not believe that it would prove impossible to find some national organisations capable of offering IBSA their commitment to organise, within a four-year period, at least one continental or regional competition.

IBSA must therefore take heed of this positive trend and, with the full involvement of the World Blind Union, must plan a series of actions that enable this qualitative leap to be achieved for the greatest possible number of nations on all the continents.

The recently formed IBSA Task Force must confront this problem and seek the economic resources, through sponsorship and clearly established donations, but also through the collaboration of capable persons, convinced of the good work of this project, in order to attempt to resolve the question.

"Hot water"

In Italy it is often said that "they have invented hot water" to demonstrate that a certain project is totally obvious. It is true that this problem has been constantly discussed, that all the possible solutions have been put forward but .... it has always remained at the project level, nice but only a theory!

On the threshold of the third millennium of mankind, would we not like to unite all our resources and express, in a tangible form, our generosity towards those thousands of persons who, by way of an appropriate physical activity, could significantly ameliorate their existence? And this, even though they might never go on to become .... MIGHTY CHAMPIONS!!!

Despite my "youth", I am an inveterate optimist and am therefore convinced that, trusting in our fellow man and also in Divine Providence, anything can be achieved. Why don't we give it a go?

WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY!

M E D A L T A B L E

ATHLETICS

Position Nation Gold Silver Bronze

1 Spain 18 11 12
2 Belarus 7 3 5
3 Russia 7 3 3

SWIMMING

Position Nation Gold Silver Bronze

1 Spain 18 12 12
2 Germany 8 3 0
3 G. Britain 5 8 6

"REFLECTIONS ON THE IPC GENERAL ASSEMBLY SYDNEY 1997"

Brian Scobie. IBSA Technical Director

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the IPC's General Assembly in Sydney, but in view of the history of relations between the two federations, and of my own experience at a technical level of how difficult it has been to achieve an acceptable working relationship between them, I listened carefully to all the accounts I could get of the events that unfolded there. One or two matters pending there were of direct technical significance.

There was one motion to be voted in Sydney that had a direct bearing on the part that IBSA will play in the future structures of Paralympic sports practised by the Blind. This was a proposal to allow an IBSA representative a guaranteed place on each of the relevant Sport Assembly Executive Committees. When this motion succeeded, IPC recognised finally an important democratic right for Blind sport. It was a decision thas was consistent in principle with the IBSA-IPC Agreement in Lausanne. The detail of its implementation could, nevertheless, present some further testing of good intentions.

Although I welcomed this important structural change within IPC, I was disappointed that it was the only point within a four-point proposal put to the IPC Technical Officer in June of 1997 to which there was any IPC response at all. Two other points were quite straightforward, as it seemed to us: confirmation of the right of IBSA to determine the rules for Blind sport, and the right of IBSA to determine the classifications to be used in Blind sport. It would be good to have had confirmation or denial of these rights, even if it was not judged necessary to put them to the Sports Council or the Assembly in Sydney.

The remaining issue is to me a more serious matter. Among the four points put formally in writing to the then IPC Technical Officer, Mr. Lindström, in June -and indeed put to him on all previous occasions during which there was discussion of IBSA's technical relationships with IPC -was the IBSA position on the competition calendar. The Lausanne Agreement asserts and confirms IBSA's right as an independent and autonomous international federation to maintain its own programme of competitions, including World and Regional Championships. What was offered to IPC -as an arrangement consistent with the co-ordination and co-operation foreseen in the Agreement- was a fifty/fifty split based on the principle that there should never be duplication of World or Regional championships in a Blind sport in any one year. IBSA. therefore, offered to support IPC as organisers of championships in Year Two and in Year four of the Paralympic cycle in return for the right to organise its own championships in Years One and Three.

As has been said, no official response by IPC Technical Officer to this important proposal has yet been given. Nor did he permit discussion of it in the Sports Council Executive Committee held in Paris at the end of June 1997. Yet, remarkably, a late motion for Sydney was circulated at the end of August by Mr. Lindström as IPC Technical Officer. It was in effect a counter proposal to the IBSA offer, but it did not come from IPC. Instead this was a motion to the General Assembly sponsored by Sweden, of which association Mr. Lindström is, of course, the current Secretary-General. I know that he does not find this attempted manipulation quite so offensive as others do; at the least, I regard it as ill mannered, and lacking in respect not only for IBSA, but for the very committee which he chairs. But let all of that pass. What would the consequence have been? Sweden's proposal would have restricted IBSA championships to the year following the Paralympic Games, all other years would be the responsibility of IPC sports and IPC regions. The fate of this proposal was therefore of great interest to IBSA, although it conflicted fundamentally with the agreement entered into in Lausanne (and of course signed on behalf of IPC by the same Mr. Lindström -or one of them!).

In the end, what did pass in Sydney was part of the basic IBSA principle, namely the assertion that there should not be duplicate championships held in the same sport in the same year. Quite what this means in the case of Swimming, for which IPC announced IPC World Championships in 1998 -apparently to include duplicate championship events for Blind swimmers, in spite of the prior existence of the Madrid IBSA 1998 World Championships-remains to be seen. (The IBSA World Championships were confirmed within minutes of the signing of the Lausanne Agreement, in February 1997. The IPC World Championships in Swimming for the same year, 1998, were announced at the beginning of October 1997, more than seven months later. IBSA's intention to host multi-sport championships had been known to IPC since the autumn of 1996. IPC did not officially inform IBSA of its intention to hold alternative championships in 1998. Whatever words one uses to describe IPC's handling of these matters, one can hardly think of this history as marked by "co-ordination and co-operation".) Decisions about the structure of the calendar were devolved to the individual sports.

What did the Assembly in Sydney promise for the future? The principles and practices governing this sensitive relationship between IPC and IBSA will still require clarification and negotiation for some time to come, so much is evident. But I continue to hope that IPC will embrace a more pluralist and less monolithic vision of how to serve the diverse needs, and capitalise upon the variety of existing skills and services, within the world of disabled sport. It certainly is clear that IPC changes and redefines itself with each assembly, which seems an indication that for all its undoubted achievements the Paralympic movement nevertheless houses many discontents. The challenge to the Presidency, the turn-over of personnel in the elections, the threatened fragmentation posed by Europe, the advent of the sports as a potentially powerful voting bloc within the Assembly; all of these seem to me indications or causes of an instability within the movement that will require wise stewardship, and perhaps some tolerance and restraint, as well as resourcefulness, from the officers of IPC. Many interest groups would like to see change within IPC. Responding to those demands will be a necessary challenge.

It is easier to know what the role and responsibilities of IBSA are to be over the next three or four years. And to see, in contrast to IPC, fundamental stability and purpose within IBSA. I hope that IPC will be one of the means by which we can discharge those responsibilities without having to impinge upon the proper rights of others. Perhaps with a new Executive and a new Technical Officer, IPC will accord to IBSA fuller recognition of its important role in the service of Blind sport. I certainly expect that relations on a technical level will be franker and more open than in the past. The IBSA President's offer to host the first Sports Council Executive Committee in Madrid, should be an indication again of our willingness to enter into a co-operative relationsnip with IPC Technical department. A similar offer following the signing of the Lausanne Agreement was refused by Mr. Lindström. I take it as an indication of things to come that Carol Mushett, the new Technical Officer, accepted willingly.