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The people’s Games

Two years and counting as Whistler gets ready to change the world through the Paralympics
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Golden Moment The Canadian sledge hockey team celebrates its victory over the U.S. in the 2006 Paralympics, and the team's first ever Paralympic win since sledge hockey was added to the Games in 1994.

Paralympic officials are concerned that the cost of accommodation in Whistler in 2010 will force them to stay in Vancouver rather than in the resort, which is hosting the majority of the event.

“One of the challenges we are experiencing, especially for Whistler, is that often the (accommodation) prices in that season are quite expensive,” said Arno Wolter, executive planner for the International Parlaympic Committee from headquarters in Bonn, Germany.

“Since the heartbeat of the Paralympics will be up in Whistler obviously the Paralympic family would like to be up there.

“…If the prices are prohibitive, with say, a one night stay costing $400, $500, $600 Cdn dollars then it becomes very difficult. Most of the (National Paralympic Committees) will have to choose to live in Vancouver and that will shift the experience… and that would be a little bit of a strange situation.”

The concern comes as Vancouver and Whistler celebrate the two-year countdown to the start of the 2010 Paralympics, which will run from March 12 to 21. It is the first time Canada has hosted the Winter Paralympic Games, which will see 1,350 athletes and officials come to compete in 60 Paralympic medal events.

Paralympic athletes and coaches will stay in Whistler’s athletes’ village during the Games, but it is the Paralympic officials, sport organizations, athletes’ families and sponsors who are concerned about the cost of Whistler’s accommodation.

Those worries were echoed by Carla Qualtrough, president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC).

“National Paralympic Committees don’t have the cash flow that Olympic committees have,” she said.

“I am talking Canada too and it would be such a shame if Canada and the other 44 countries (competing) ended up staying in Vancouver at night just because it was less expensive.

“We are going to have a great team and a great event but if what we are remembered for is that no one could afford to stay (in Whistler) that would be tragic.”

Qualtrough said Paralympic officials are in discussions with the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) and others to find a solution. It will also be top of the list of challenges to solve when IPC members come to Vancouver in May for talks.

Qualtrough said everyone is determined to find an answer but if a solution is slow to materialize this may impact how the Paralympics are delivered.

“We already have sledge hockey and curling down in Vancouver,” she said. “If you give us one more reason to head to Vancouver that might be it. But I know we will fix it, we have to.”

Said Dena Coward, VANOC’s director of Paralympic Games: “VANOC is working with the IPC to develop the accommodation plans for the Paralympic Games.

“We will work together to look for a variety of types of accommodation in Whistler to service the needs of the IPC and Paralympic Games Family and we are optimistic that once all the information is provided we will be able to develop something that addresses their requirements.”

Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed is urging accommodation providers in the resort to look to past Games experiences when considering tariffs for the Paralympics.

“My understanding is that we are expecting business to be below normal outside of the period of the Olympics and that by the time that transition period is over and the Paralympics start we are going to be back to value based pricing,” he said.

“Looking back on the history of past Games visitors have stayed away in droves because there are these myths and misperceptions about it being too busy, or being too crazy or too expensive.”

In the beginning:

The original 2002 bid plans for the 2010 Paralympic Games wowed the IPC and CPC with a vision which saw all the Paralympic events hosted in Whistler — the first time such a compact venue had been offered up.

From the resort community’s point of view it was good news too, since there was to be a new ice arena as a legacy. But rising construction costs put an end to the dream.

With no new ice arena in place for sledge hockey, one of the most popular events, it was moved to Vancouver, along with wheelchair curling.

Wolter said the split is another challenge Paralympic officials are keeping a close watch on.

“This will remain a challenge and a priority until the end,” he said.

“We feel positive that it can be resolved.”

The IPC will be looking at transportation plans and the plans for the celebrations as a way to bridge the Sea to Sky divide.

Wolter said there have been discussions about the importance of scheduling events so that spectators and others can travel between Whistler and Vancouver at decent hours. And, he said, big screen broadcasts of events can also keep each venue up-to-date with what is going on at the others, making the Games feel whole.

“This spirit should be maintained,” said Wolter.

“This is one of our priorities that we always stressed and VANOC is very much aware that it is a priority and they are working toward solutions to making that happen.”

Both these topics came up for discussions recently during the visit of the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Committee, which has an IPC delegate.

Inclusivity means legacies are already here

What has become abundantly clear, said Wolter, is the way VANOC and other stakeholders are committed to making the process inclusive.

“I think VANOC is the best organizing committee we have seen in terms of working in an integrated way,” he said.

“It seems it will be a fantastic example and also a legacy for the future organizing committees as we work with them.

“The level of integration and also how it is being taken up the (host venues) and the people living in the region, this is definitely something that we have never experienced to this extent in previous Games.”

From Whistler’s perspective embracing inclusivity did not happen by accident. It has long been on the resort community’s radar but the Paralympics have acted like a catalyst and now many of the long-term legacies of the Games are already visible.

At every staircase there is a sign offering an alternate route for those with mobility challenges, this summer will see stairs and railings painted with strong colours to help the visually impaired, there has been an on-going awareness campaign in the local media to keep issues front and centre, the municipality has created a barrier-free route map, and major renovations will take place at the Pan Pacific transit exchange and the breeze way taxi loop to make them accessible entrances before 2010.

“The Paralympics, being a fixed date, actually gives us a deadline and deadlines are always important to implementing anything,” said Kevin McFarland, RMOW parks planner and member of Whistler’s Accessibility Advisory Group.

“I think there is a prominence that has been long sought and is at last here…. So certainly the Paralympics raised things to a higher level in people’s minds.”

Plans are also underway to upgrade the parks systems so that play areas are accessible for visiting families in the future. McFarland sees the changes as a symbol of Whistler maturing.

Hugh Tollett has been quietly working behind the scenes and in public with the Accessibility Advisory Group when necessary to advance inclusivity while waiting for Whistler to grow-up. The founder of the Whistlerforthedisabled.com website, he is a strong advocate for making the resort more inclusive.

One change he is anxious to see as a legacy of the growing awareness around disability is an improvement to transportation.

“Not everyone has a vehicle they can transport a mobility-restricted person in and it takes 48 hours to book a Greyhound bus, which only holds two,” said Tollett by e-mail.

“Whistler will be getting fully accessible buses soon and that will help out. But no matter what, even if we make it the most accessible community on Earth if you can’t get people there and back it won’t matter much.”

In the six years Tollett has been developing his website, with little or no funding, he has produced the most comprehensive guide anywhere for visitors with disabilities.

WASP grows too

As visitors learn more about how accessible the resort is more of them are booking vacations here.

That has meant the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program (WASP) has seen its lessons go from 500 less than three years ago to over 2,000 this year.

“It is incredible, we are definitely hitting capacity,” said Chelsey Walker, WASP’s executive director.

The organization helps anyone aged three and up, with any disability, enjoy sporting activities from skiing to mountain biking. While the feedback on the program is great, said Walker, who also sits on Whistler’s Accessibility Advisory Group, everyone knows that more needs to be done.

“Now that we are two years out (from the Paralympics) it is becoming apparent that in order to attract as many individuals as possible, be they athletes or be they recreational visitors, we need the community to really address accessibility and make sure that we are creating a universal seamless experience for every individual,” she said.

“We are using a sport festival, the Paralympic Games, really as a lever to really make accessibility just part of the fabric of our community.”

The ripples from this sea-change are reaching into work places where employers are making sure desk heights are appropriate, to Whistler-Blackcomb where people-movers are wide enough to accommodate sit skiers, to housing where a considerable number of units in the athletes’ village will be universally accessible.

“It is a work in progress,” said Walker.

“But given that we have this tremendous opportunity to lever off of the Games, we are going to be able to create the best possible experience and hopefully attract visitors to visit year after year, thereby creating a very strong business model for our community to draw from.”

Mayor Melamed is looking for the same return.

“We see this as a tremendous opportunity for enriching the community as well and expanding our economic activity,” he said.

“We want to be an inclusive resort and an inclusive community and we have so much to share. I mean the amenities here are fabulous so why not take that extra step and include a whole segment of the global population, because we can market this in the same way that we have come to understand that arts and culture is an opportunity.”

Awareness is the legacy of a lifetime

Though the concrete changes to Whistler are the legacy that can be seen, it is the legacy of the growing awareness of the movement that is making itself felt.

That is due in no small part to a conscious decision by VANOC and its partners.

“(VANOC) is giving the push that the Paralympics needed, compared to some previous Games, to come out of the shadow of the Olympics and really become an event where people say, ‘wow, this is also a big event and it is not just the little sister of the Olympics,’” said Wolter of the IPC.

It’s a quest VANOC is fully engaged in, said Coward.

“Our biggest challenge is just awareness around the Games and that it is a separate event,” she said.

“I think first and foremost the legacy of this event is the awareness of Paralympic sport. That is huge. That people know who our Paralympic athletes are, that kids who have disabilities have role models — I think that is a huge legacy.

“And I think the understanding too that people with disabilities are high performing athletes and it is a great competition.”

Already people are excited about the Paralympics in a way that hasn’t been seen before said the CPC’s Qualtrough, pointing to the 2006 celebration VANOC organized in Whistler to launch the logo as an example.

“I remember walking through the village after the logo launch and these snowboard dudes, and I mean dudes, were going ‘Paralympics rule.’ And I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, can you imagine that,” said Qualtrough, a human rights lawyer, whose parents had to pay for her to have the right to compete in swimming at the Seoul Games in 1988 and in Barcelona in 1992.

Add that to the “little” things, she said, like the official Paralympic countdown clock alongside the Olympic one, the Paralympic flag flying alongside the Olympic one, and the fact that just about every time VANOC officials say Olympic they say Paralympic and you are manifesting change.

“My mom calls me when she hears that on the radio,” said Qualtrough.

“I have athletes who call me and say, ‘somebody just said Paralympic, Carla.’ It makes you feel good.

“Hosting the Paralympic Games will move the bar forward in so many ways it is hard to even quantify them because there will be social, there will be economic, there will be sport system development — all these things will be advanced in a way that 20 to 25 years ago couldn’t have done because of the eyes of the world being on Vancouver and Whistler.”

But there is still work to be done, said Qualtrough, adding that people need to be educated about the difference between the Special Olympics, which are for athletes with mental disabilities, and the Paralympics, which are for people with physical disabilities.

The public also needs a better understanding of what the Paralympics offer as an event.

“The Paralympics will be the people’s Games,” she said.

“People will be able to afford it, there will be tickets available for it, you will get to know every Paralympic athlete, you will get to relate to their challenges and the obstacles they have overcome. The team will be the people’s team.

“It is this little community. It is 45 countries’ worth of people with a variety of disabilities and that changes you because it changes your perceptions, it changes your perception of excellence. Excellence isn’t just physical perfection, it is so much bigger than that.”

As part of the push to keep the momentum going from the time of the Olympics, which run from February 12 to 28, VANOC and its host venue partners are working on a transition plan from one event to the other that will appear seamless.

Since much of the regalia of the Games will have both logos on it much of it will not need to be removed. The “tear-down” of the Olympics will not be so apparent. That’s important to arriving Paralympians who often feel the Games are being dismantled around them.

“We want to show people that it is not exactly the same Games but it is part of the same festival,” said Wolter.

“In the preliminary designs that we have seen this has been taken into account and I think this will be a good solution for future Games. It is an example actually.”

Said Qualtrough: “We are planning with VANOC to do events in the 10 days in between to keep the momentum going.

“Our athletes have historically had a sense that what the Paralympic Games are is the Olympics being taken down around them.

“We come in as a movement and you literally see workers taking down banners, packing up shop, and sponsors leaving, and you are there and you’ve got your opening ceremony.”

Although the details are still being worked out Wolter also said that there are plans for Paralympic celebrations in Whistler similar to the nightly ones held during the Olympics. The closing ceremonies, which will be held in Whistler, are expected to draw 8,000 people.

Athlete development

Part of the increase in awareness is reaching out to the development of Canada’s parathletes.

Gone are the days when athletes with a physical disability could quickly qualify for the Games.

“You have to be excellent now to get to the Paralympics and you have to be extraordinary to win a medal,” said Qualtrough.

That awareness is spreading from the school programs all the way to the people who hand out the funding dollars.

The financing parathletes are receiving from Own the Podium, a sport technical program designed to help Canada become the number one nation in terms of medals won in 2010, has resulted in more full-time coaches, additional support staff and access to Top Secret program benefits, and more funding for World Cup travel.

A total of $2 million a year from OTP gets divided between four national sport organizations that have integrated sport for the disabled — Hockey Canada, Alpine Canada, Cross-country Canada and the Canadian Curling Association. Asked how this has benefited her two-time Paralympian Lauren Woolstencroft said: “It is night and day between when I started and now. The amount of training we have and the coaching staff we are able to get is just such an increase from what it used to be and we are starting to see that our team is really strong.

“We are getting better results than ever and we see that as a result of having summer training and having 12 months of the year fitness programs. It’s all that attention to detail that just wasn’t there before.”

Increased training helps to push up the level of the elite sport, something Woolstencroft embraces.

“Even when I started 10 to 12 years ago the competition wasn’t nearly as challenging as it is today,” she said from Burnaby where she was getting a few days work in as an electrical engineer for B.C. Hydro.

“For me as an athlete it is awesome because it is great to compete in such a competitive field and it means so much more to me to know that if I won, I won amongst a strong group of competitors.

“You see that trickling down to all levels now. People are becoming involved because the word is getting out there and as a result it is just getting more and more competitive and I think it is bringing a lot of legitimacy to our sport, which is great for all levels.”

And while she can’t wait to try out the turns on the Paralympic downhill on Whistler Mountain, Woolstencroft hopes one of the lasting legacies is to reach out to younger generations with disabilities.

“Letting the younger generation, those with physical disabilities, know that there is a place that they can compete at a high level is very exciting,” she said.

“I hope the Paralympics leave a legacy for those with disabilities to get involved in sport. And I also hope that it is just going to show to the general population what Paralympic sport is and… that it is a highly competitive elite sport. That will leave a good impression for the disability world in general.”



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