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	TX: 07.05.08 - Paralympic World Cup PRESENTER: SHEILA MCCLENNON

	Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 麻豆约拍 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. MCCLENNON As the publicity and the controversy builds in the run up to the Beijing Olympics, less than a hundred days to go now, it's easy to forget that the full title for the event is the Olympic and Paralympic Games. But for the next four days Manchester is hosting the most significant international warm up event for disabled athletes - the Paralympic World Cup. So what will spectators see and what's the significance of the event? I'm joined by Peter White. Peter, how big are these Manchester games now? WHITE They are big, it's the second largest international disability event after the Paralympics. Four hundred athletes from around 45 countries. But to put that in a bit of context for you. The Paralympics last time had over 4,000 athletes from well over a hundred countries, what you've got to remember is that disability sport isn't as wealthy as mainstream sport, so two big trips - this one and then the Paralympics in Beijing - is probably very difficult, particularly for developing countries. Having said that most of the big players are here. In addition to our competitors you've got many from Europe, the United States, there's a squad from Australia and perhaps most interesting of all over 60 athletes from China - the host - more about them later. As for the events four main ones: athletics, swimming, track cycling and wheelchair basketball. MCCLENNON And what about the finance Peter - who pays for all this, is it self supporting? WHITE Well no it's not. In spite of a lot of interest when the Paralympics come round it's still really difficult to attract large crowds to this kind of event unless you fix it in some kind of way. So there has to be subsidy, in this case it's split three ways really between Sport UK, Manchester City Council and the North West Regional Development Agency. MCCLENNON Who we'll be talking to in a moment. But Peter how does it come about that this event is being held in Manchester, not just this year but it has been for the past four years? WHITE Yeah it's very interesting really, the background Sheila is that - it was realised that disability sport only really had a profile when the Paralympics were on - every four years - which is no good for trying to sustain something, in between times everybody in the media just tended to forget all about it because there weren't any big events. So an annual world cup seemed to be the answer and the planning for this was coming to fruition just after Manchester's very successful integration of Paralympic sport into its 2002 Commonwealth Games. I think that allied to the fact really that although people complain about coverage of disability sport in comparison to mainstream Britain, and the 麻豆约拍 in particular, still tends to do this more consistently than almost anyone else. And then Manchester was up for doing it. MCCLENNON Well Sheldon Phillips is marketing manager from the North West Development Agency. What difference do these games make to the economy in the North West Sheldon? PHILLIPS Well like our support for all our major events we do look at what these events bring to the economy and also the profile as well and this event is going to probably mean about a million pounds coming into Manchester and the North West region, as well as a lot of media profile that's taking place right across the country and indeed across the world. MCCLENNON And are there other advantages, Sheldon, because I would have thought that if you have an annual influx of people with all sorts of disabilities there will be a lasting legacy, hopefully, for the disabled in Manchester and the North West in terms of facilities, shops, hotels, restaurants, what have you, accessibility - does that happen? PHILLIPS Yeah I mean I think it's quite important that this event actually raises the profile of disability issues more generally and we've seen, certainly in the early days of this competition, that the hotels had to adapt and get used to disabled athletes and coaches and so on. And now they're more tuned in to the needs of visitors generally with a disability. And I think that's quite important. And also as well in terms of the general public - I think the whole awareness of disability and disabled athletes has been raised quite significantly. MCCLENNON But is that something you still feel that you need to work on because it raises the profile of both disability and sport it's still a challenge, isn't it, to attract spectators that the event deserves, how can you get more people coming? PHILLIPS Yeah it is a challenge and I think a lot of sports - able bodied sports as well as disability sport - really need heroes, people in the media, people like Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, who's probably one of the most famous paralympians, she's the one that people know, she unfortunately retired but was a great supporter of the Paralympic World Cup here in Manchester. And what the sport needs is those personalities that people can get some affinity to. MCCLENNON That's the problem isn't it, if you ask people to name a disabled athlete Dame Tanni might be the only one they can come up with. PHILLIPS That's right and there's been some recent research just on that issue that people are very, very supportive of disability sport, very, very supportive of the Paralympics and really now do understand that this is proper sport but it's difficult for people to actually have that direct affinity. MCCLENNON Is Oscar Pistorius competing? PHILLIPS No he's not this year. And again that's another classic example where you've got a personality who's been in the news, not only because of his sporting prowess but because of his attempts to get into the Olympics proper. And to a certain extent that's good and bad, I mean it's good that he's actually raised the profile of disability sport but also has challenged, if you like, the whole issue about disability and able bodied and the sort of very difficult issues around that. MCCLENNON And what about Manchester's role in all of this Sheldon, are they going to try and keep hold of the Paralympic World Cup or will they have to accept that it will move around at some point? PHILLIPS Yeah I mean Manchester and the North West Regional Development Agency have been very supportive of the event taking place here in Manchester and as Peter said, you know, Manchester's got a strong history of supporting athletes with a disability following the Commonwealth Games. And what we've seen in Manchester is a whole programme of development around disability sport on the back of the Paralympic World Cup and hopefully we can see this event take place in most of the years to come. MCCLENNON Well Sheldon Phillips thank you. So Peter is this likely to be a medal fest for Britain, how are we going to do, do you reckon? WHITE Well it certainly should be actually because for a start we're the hosts and that makes it easier, most of our Paralympic hopefuls will be at the games - it doesn't cost too much to get to Manchester for them. Secondly, the events are set up for us too really to be honest - we have, under coach Tim Reddish, probably the best swimming squad in the world, so we're likely to do there. We've also got in recent years - we've done extremely well at track cycling and some big names in Paralympic sport people such as former swimming gold medallist Sarah Bailey and Jody Cundy have gone over to that, towards the end of their careers - if they'll forgive me for saying so. We've also - we've got some big names in the athletics - wheelchair racers David Weir, and a Manchester sprinter Ian Jones as well. And our basketball teams - men's and women's - will also be hoping for good results. MCCLENNON So lots of names to remember and look out for. And what about China, you mentioned them before Peter, what will they be doing? WHITE Well I mean they're really interesting, they've sent a squad of 60, so they're obviously taking it very seriously, as preparation. And we've been really interested in them because they've done so well over the last few years. A few weeks ago I was actually in Beijing trying to answer the question - why have they been so enormously successful in recent games with twice as many golds in Athens as anyone else - we were second. And tomorrow you can hear my report on this including Li Duan - double gold medallist last time - talking about his first attempt at long jump after losing his sight in a basketball accident. DUANthrough interpreter I had the feeling that I couldn't dare to run ahead, it was as if there were tigers ahead of me and it was like a string pulling me from behind, holding me back. And so it was overcoming that fear. WHITE So that was him landing in the pit, join us for that, a lot more and our exclusive access to their new paralympic training centre, that's tomorrow. MCCLENNON Will do Peter. Back to the Transcripts homepage Back to the You and Yours homepage The 麻豆约拍 is not responsible for external websites

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