IPC Awards Paralympic Orders for Outstanding Merit

At the 9th IPC General Assembly, a total of eleven medals of the Paralympic Order were awarded “in recognition of the outstanding merit in the cause of world sport for disabled and the faithfulness to the Paralympic ideal, as fostered by the Paralympic Committee and its constitution”.

Paralympic Orders in Gold were presented to Mr. André Auberger, former IPC Treasurer, Dr. Michael Riding, former IPC Medical Officer and Dr. Robert Steadward, former IPC President.

Eleven medals of the Paralympic Order were awarded

Ms Elizabeth Dendy, past President of the Cerebral Palsy International Sport and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA), as well as Ms Lina Faria who held the very same position proudly received Paralympic Orders in Silver. This award was also presented to Mr. Enrique Sanz, past President of the International Blind Sport Association (IBSA), Mr. Guillermo Gabezas, past President of the International Sport Organisation for the Disabled (ISOD), Sir Harry Fang, founding father of the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled Federation (FESPIC) and Mr. Walther Tröger, IOC Delegate for Sport for Athletes with a Disability.

Mr. George Dunstan, former representative of the South Pacific Region, as well as Mr. Gilbert Felli, IOC Sport Director were awarded the Paralympic Order in Bronze for their outstanding merits.

As the era under the Presidency of Dr. Steadward came to an end in Athens, not only Paralympic Orders, but also Certificates of Appreciation were handed to two individuals, who committed themselves outstandingly during this entire period and accompanied and supported the International Paralympic Committee wherever needed. Ms Barbara Campbell, personal assistant of Dr. Steadward, as well as Ms Leen Coudenys, IPC Executive Assistant, were honoured by the entire Paralympic family receiving this award.

General Assembly Readmits INAS-FID as IPC Member

The suspension of INAS-FID, the world sports organization
for athletes with an intellectual disability, from membership
in the IPC was lifted by the IPC General Assembly.

However, INAS-FID had to specifically acknowledge and accept that the IPC protest procedures for classification and eligibility, which are applied universally at the Paralympic Games and IPC Championships, shall also include athletes with intellectual disability.

Specifically, it was made clear in a motion, which the IPC Executive Committee had put forward that the following parts of the IPC Handbook have to equally apply to intellectually
disabled athletes:

A competitor who cannot participate on reasonably equal terms in a sport for “able-bodied” because of a functional disadvantage due to a permanent disability is eligible for that sport within the IPC Programme.
The minimum handicap is determined in and by each sport depending on functional factors.
Sport specific functional classes and classification rules are described under the specific sports rules respectively. Amendments of the classification rules are a responsibility of the Sports Assemblies.

In the past, it was the responsibility of INAS-FID and not the one of the individual sports to deal with eligibility issues. Intellectually disabled athletes were not classified according to the degree of their disability or their functional abilities. Instead, only the criteria of minimum disability had to be fulfilled in order to participate in IPC events.

On behalf of INAS-FID, its president, Jos Mulder, accepted these terms and the organization was thus immediately reinstated as a full member of the IPC. Mulder pointed out that in the future, INAS-FID would only allow athletes to compete, who were reregistered as truly intellectually disabled after the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. There, athletes had competed in the basketball events without being truly intellectually disabled. As a result, the IPC had suspended INAS-FID from membership and had not allowed athletes with an intellectual disability to compete in IPC events.

In the meantime, INAS-FID convinced the IPC that it has made considerable progress in improving its eligibility system.

In the cases of the forthcoming Salt Lake 2002 Paralympic Winter Games and 2002 World Championships where the event programmes, schedules and standards have already been established and distributed, the inclusion of ID athletes will not be possible.