Vancouver Paralympics influencing positive changes in Canada, official says

From the Vancouver Sun:

The first official Paralympic Games in Canada are still eight months away, but the influence of the competition for elite athletes with a disability is already being felt, says Carla Qualtrough, president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

While the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing brought very visible changes to a country that tended to shun the disabled, "it's more subtle here in Canada because we're a lot more advanced on disability issues," Qualtrough said in advance of today's major International Paralympic Day celebrations at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

"But there are still things that are happening here in B.C. that would not have happened but for the hosting of the Games. I'm absolutely convinced about that and a lot of them are completely unrelated to sport, whether it's accessible tourism or people with disabilities getting jobs or stereotypes being dispelled. It's really neat and it's overwhelming."

The 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver/Whistler will be held March 12-21, just under two weeks after the close of the Winter Olympics.

Today in Whistler, in conjunction with International Paralympic Day, 2010 mascot Sumi will be joined by ex-Paralympian Brad Leanna and 2010 hopefuls Tyler Mosher, a cross-country skier, and Darryl Neighbour, a wheelchair curler, in hosting demonstrations of sports to be contested next March.

"I don't think people know what they're in for," Qualtrough said of a 2010 Games that will feature sledge hockey, wheelchair curling, para-alpine skiing, para-nordic skiing and para-biathlon. "It's such a unique experience.

"It's so personal because security issues aren't the same, the scope of it isn't as vast. It's like 'the people's Games.' It's affordable, it's accessible. It's about people you can relate to, whose life might have been interrupted unexpectedly, achieving greatness."

The Paralympics did not start to follow immediately on the Olympics in the same host city until Seoul in 1988 and Albertville in 1992, although Toronto did host an event in 1976 billed as an Olympiad for the Physically Disabled.

Qualtrough spoke at a CPC function in downtown Vancouver where members of Canada's Paralympic wheelchair basketball teams played on an open-air court on the third floor of an office building. German and Canadian wheelchair tennis players, Kai Schrameyer and Sarah Hunter also played an exhibition.

Qualtrough, who competed 20 years ago as a visually impaired swimmer, says she hopes the 2010 Games will lead to more international events for the disabled in B.C. In September 2010, the world wheelchair rugby championships will take place at the Richmond Olympic Oval.