Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has hailed the launch of an initiative to unite every athlete who has competed at a Paralympic Games for Great Britain and Northern Ireland as an “amazing opportunity”.
With Paris 2024 on the horizon, the new ParalympicsGB Athlete Community will allow former team-mates to reconnect and new bonds to be formed between sporting greats across the generations.
Wheelchair racer Grey-Thompson, who won 11 Paralympic golds between 1992 and 2004, believes the scheme will provide “context” and recognise the “trajectory” of disability sport.
“It’s really important to know where you’ve come from and where you’re going,” she told the PA news agency, speaking at Tuesday’s launch.
“Just knowing who came before you gives you context for where you are now and it shows the maturity of the Paralympic movement in the UK that they’re at a point that they can do this.
“It’s just quite exciting, really, because there will be people with shared experiences we don’t know about.
“We know more recent history about medallists, which is nice, but actually competing for GB is a massive privilege and so few get to do it.
“To try and find people who have come before us is really important. That trajectory is important to recognise.
“It feels an amazing opportunity for us all to connect across the generations and, ultimately, celebrate the incredible pioneers.”
Following on from the Stoke Mandeville Games, which began in 1948, the first Paralympics was held in Rome in 1960.
Each GB Paralympian who joins the new community will receive a special recognition token for every Games they attended and be invited to reunion events.
Cross-country skier Mike Brace, who represented Great Britain at the first winter Paralympics in 1976 and was chairman of the British Paralympic Association between 2001 and 2008, also welcomed the creation of the new community.
“It’s a very, very important step forward,” said the 73-year-old, who was blinded by a firework aged 10.
Once you've competed and had those wonderful highs then there is a big vacuum, so having a group that have experienced what you've experienced to be part of is really important— Mike Brace
“I started my Paralympic journey nearly 50 years ago and you hardly had any chance to speak to other athletes or learn from them.
“As a support mechanism, you’ve suddenly got this massive wealth of experience able to support athletes, both current but also former.
“Once you’ve competed and had those wonderful highs then there is a big vacuum, so having a group that have experienced what you’ve experienced, to be part of is really important.”
Athletes who compete at the Paris Paralympics, which begin on August 28, or future Games will be automatically included in the community, while ParalympicsGB would like to hear from family members of deceased Paralympians to ensure they are also recognised.
ParalympicsGB chief executive David Clarke said: “Every single one of our Paralympians has made a unique and crucial contribution to the development and growth of our movement and that is why we want to develop a bespoke space that honours legacy and provides genuine connection for everyone.”
:: Visit paralympics.org.uk to find out more about the ParalympicsGB Athlete Community.
