In Tokyo

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) will use the power of sport to transform the lives of 15 percent of the world’s population which is made up of persons with disabilities.

At the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in the Japanese capital Tuesday night, IPC President Andrew Parsons also launched the “#WeThe15” campaign to spearhead the transformation over the next 10 years.

An estimated 1.2 billion people live with various disabilities globally.

“Over the next 10 years “WeThe15” will challenge how the world’s 15 percent with disabilities are perceived and treated at a global level,” Parsons said.

“With the support of 20 international organisations, civil society, the business sector, and the media, we will put the world’s 1.2 billion persons with disabilities firmly at the heart of the inclusion agenda,” he added in his speech at the Tokyo National Stadium.

“Your performances could change the fortunes of your lives. But most importantly they will change the lives of 1.2 billion forever,” the IPC supremo told the athletes.  

“This is the power of sport, to transform lives and communities. Change starts with sport. And from tomorrow on, Paralympic athletes start once again to change to world.”

Seiko Hashimoto, the President of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, said the coronavirus pandemic had visited more suffering on persons with disability, calling for support for this vulnerable group.

“The Paralympians have been training harder than ever, all while being weighed down with Covid-19-related anxiety — perhaps even more so than those of us without impairments,” she said.

Japan’s Prime Minister Suga said it was an honour for Japan to host a second summer Olympics having organised the 1964 Games.

“Half a century after the Tokyo 1964 Paralympic Games, we are honoured to host the Paralympic Games here in Tokyo for the second time. Tokyo is the first ever city in the world to host the Summer Paralympic Games twice,” Suga said. 

“At the Paralympic Games, athletes with different kinds of physical impairments come together from all around the world to challenge limits with impressive ingenuity and skill. 

“This is also an opportunity for us to work towards achieving a society in which all people can live together and respect each other’s personalities and characteristics, regardless of impairment. 

“No other place outside of the Paralympic Games provides such a close-up of world class Para athletes competing with everything they have and celebrating each other’s efforts.”

The Paralympic Games’ history dates back to the Second World War when, in 1948, German-born English neurosurgeon Ludwig Guttmann launched competition for injured British servicemen. 

He was also head of the National Spinal Injuries Center at Stoke Mandeville Hospital where he promoted physical activity as part of the rehabilitation process.

At the 1948 London Olympics, 16 disabled patients competed in archery and in 1952, the inaugural International Stoke Mandeville Games were hosted as the forerunner to the present-day Paralympics first held in Rome in 1960. 

To date, the Paralympics flame is lit at Stoke Mandeville and transported to the host city as was the case with Tokyo last night.

Tokyo residents were still skeptical that the Paralympic Games can be held in a safe and secure manner with Tokyo experiencing its biggest wave of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic.

According to Tuesday’s figures, Tokyo recorded 4,220 new Covid-19 cases with Japan announcing plans to expand the Covid-19 state of emergency currently covering Tokyo and 12 other areas to eight more prefectures (provinces).

Japan has so far recorded 1,344,549 cases of Covid-19 with 1,087,193 recovered patients and 15,651 deaths reported.

Many locals are worried at the prospects of holding another major event under the current circumstances, especially considering the fact that Paralympic athletes come into contact with support staff more regularly owing to their physical conditions, therefore exposing the risk further.

Organisers will require conditions that are more stringent than those in place during the Olympics.

Increased testing has been employed at the Olympic Village where over 90 percent of the athletes are said to have already been vaccinated prior to travelling to Tokyo.

Both with several athletes suffering underlying conditions and with weaker respiratory functions, and coupled with the inability of many of the athletes to keep social distance due to their conditions, the Tokyo Paralympics bubble is expected to be more intense than that witnessed at the Olympic Games.

But there’s a positive side to the Games, according to Ishikawa Chiaki, Japanese television station NHK’s world sports correspondent.

“More than 4,400 athletes from nearly 160 countries and territories plus a refugee team are descending on Japan. The figure is a record,” she says.

“They not only represent themselves and their countries, but also 1.2 billion people with impairments around the world.

“Also, the IPC wants to promote a shift towards a more inclusive society, which means no discrimination and breaking down barriers between those with impairments and those without.”