With the Paralympics well under way in Tokyo at the moment, campaigners are using the event to show the extent of disability on a worldwide basis.
The Tokyo 2020 event – delayed a year because of the coronavirus crisis – is the biggest disability sports event held to date, with 4043 athletes from all over the world and with a wide variety of impairments taking part. 1,853 of those are female, a near 11 per cent increase on Rio 2016
Andrew Parsons, the International Paralympic Committee’s President, “To break the record for the highest number of athletes at Tokyo 2020 is testament to the tremendous work of all NPCs and International Federations who have gone above and beyond the call of duty during the most testing of times.”
Out of these 228 are representing Great Britain and in the first three days have won 23 medals – eight gold, eight silver and seven bronze. This puts them second behind China for the overall total. Here is a full list of competitors and the sports – 22 in total – they are competing in. The competition finishes on September 5th.
Meanwhile, to coincide with the event, the #WeThe15 campaign has been described as sport’s biggest ever human rights movement to end discrimination, aiming to transform the lives of the world’s 1.2 billion persons with disabilities who represent 15% of the global population.
“At a time when diversity and inclusion are hot topics, the 15% who have a disability want effective change to remove the inequality and inactivity. Like race, gender and sexual orientation, we want to have a movement all persons with disabilities can rally behind. A global movement that is publicly campaigning for disability visibility, inclusion and accessibility.
WeThe15 plans to initiate change over the next decade by bringing together the biggest coalition ever of international organisations from the world of sport, human rights, policy, communications, business, arts and entertainment.”
It is supported by a host of organisations including the International Paralympic Committee, International Disability Alliance, UN Human Rights and UNESCO, and is the first collaboration between the IPC and other disability sports events including the Special Olympics, Invictus Games and International Committee of Sports for the Deaf.
Also, as the Paralympics are taking part in almost empty stadiums and the athletes’ families and friends are not allowed to attend, a Wave Of Support campaign has been set up to make sure the participants know that the British public is right behind them.
