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ParalympicsGB chef de mission Penny Briscoe branded Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s struggles to reach Paris 2024 an “absolute disgrace” and feels the episode encapsulates the daily difficulties endured by disabled people.
Former wheelchair racer Grey-Thompson, an 11-time Paralympic champion, was forced to drag herself off a London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train service on Monday because no staff were there to help.
The 55-year-old was travelling from Leeds to London – en route to the French capital – and posted a series of messages about her experience on social media.
Asked about the incident ahead of Wednesday evening’s Paralympics opening ceremony, Briscoe said: “Clearly, it’s an absolute disgrace.
“It’s the lived experience of disabled people, though, on a daily basis – it just doesn’t get reported.
“You should, as a disabled person, be able to get on and off a train and go about your daily living but the reality is far more difficult than that.”
Grey-Thompson, a crossbench peer, said she crawled off the train approximately 15 minutes after it arrived into King’s Cross station.
She later received an apology from LNER’s managing director David Horne.
ParalympicsGB has named a squad of 215 for Paris, with a selection of athletes, led by flagbearers Lucy Shuker and Terry Bywater, poised to parade along Champs-Elysees to Place de la Concorde to mark the start of the Games.
“From our perspective, what we’re trying to do as ParalympicsGB is, through sport, inspire a better world for disabled people,” added Briscoe.
“It doesn’t matter if that’s education, if that’s in life, in society – we want change and our athletes want change.”
Great Britain finished second in the medal table at the delayed Tokyo Games three years ago amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Covid-19 remains an ongoing issue, with British swimmer Adam Peaty and American sprinter Noah Lyles among those to have tested positive during the recent Olympics.
ParalympicsGB athletes may be permitted to compete in France, even if they are known to have contracted the disease.
“We know that Covid, like any respiratory illness, kind of goes in waves,” said Briscoe. “You get little peaks and then it subsides.
“I’m touching everything that we have no Covid in the camp. We do have protocols in place where if anyone presents with a respiratory illness, they’ll be checked out by our medical team, who are world class.
“If someone did have Covid, we’d ensure we get them well as soon as we possibly can.
“And then we do fit-for assessments: are they fit to compete? Yes or no? And that’s our process.
“We will not be excluding anyone with a respiratory infection from competing at the Games if they’re fit enough to go out into the field of play.”
Britain have again been set a medal target of between 100 and 140 by UK Sport following 124 trips to the podium in Japan: 41 gold, 38 silver and 45 bronze.
China have dominated recent Games, topping the table at the last five.
While Briscoe stopped short of saying it was impossible for ParalympicsGB to snap that streak, she acknowledged it was implausible and that the team was realistically competing to be the best of the rest.
We're very proud of what we do as a small nation. I think we punch above our weight— ParalympicsGB chef de mission Penny Briscoe
“With China, its talent pool is huge. It has as disabled population in the region of 65million, which is not dissimilar to the (total) population of the UK,” she said.
“When you have that talent pool to draw from, it becomes very, very difficult to compete. Their team here in Paris is huge and in athletics, in swimming they will absolutely dominate.
“We’re very proud of what we do as a small nation. I think we punch above our weight.”
