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- [00:01]
A
My name is Paul Kelly and I have the honor to be here as one of LSE's pro directors to welcome you to LSE campus and to chair this evening's public lecture. It's a great pleasure for me to welcome Sir Philip to the lse. Philip Craven has been President of the International Paralympic Committee, the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement, since 2001 and oversaw his sixth Paralympic Games in London last year. You may remember that during his time as IPC president, the Paralympic movement has enjoyed significant growth and now boasts over 200 members, including 174 National Paralympic Committees across the globe. The Paralympic Games have also developed rapidly and following London 2012, they're now the third biggest sporting event in the world, behind the Olympics and the Football World Cup. In addition to being global head of the Paralympic movement, Sir Philip is an IOC member and member of the British Olympic Association's Executive Board. Before becoming President of the ipc, Sir Philip was President of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation, having previously held roles at national and international level within the sport. He's five times Paralympian, having made his debut in 1972, competing in two sports, swimming and wheelchair basketball. He went on to represent Great Britain at wheelchair basketball at a further four Paralympic Games between 1976 and 1988. During his international wheelchair basketball career, Sir Philip won the 1973 world title and two European titles in 1971 and 1974. In 1991, he received an MBE in recognition of his services to wheelchair basketball and in 2005 was knighted for his services to Paralympic sport. He's also received numerous honorary doctorates and in 2012 was presented with the Sports Industry Awards, Lifetime achievement. For those Twitter users in the audience, there are such people. The hashtag for today's event is lseipc. As usual, after the lecture, there will be a chance for you to put your questions to the speaker. But now will you please join me in welcoming Sir Philip Craven to lse. And his lecture is entitled the Paralympic Movement Takes Off.
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B
Thank you very much, Paul. And if we can. Yes, that's it. We've got the first slide moving there and. Yeah, well, this invitation came completely out of the blue, you know, from lse. And the last time I'd even thought about the word economics was when I was 16 and I just had four months in bed following my rock climbing accident. And I thought, you know, I don't like economics. And I just started my air levels and I thought, I'm going to use this as an excuse to drop economics and stick with economic history and geography, and it worked, by the way. But anyway, I'm really pleased to be back here and I'm sure that my views on economics have changed and can be enhanced this evening. But I'm really here to talk about athletes, and there's a great American archer there, won a silver medal in London. But we are about the athletes in the Paralympic movement. But how did we put that fact down on paper to create the vision? Because I have read the odd. Not a book on leadership, but I've read the odd thing on leadership. And if there's one thing that the leader, the president or the chairman of an organization should do is to ensure that the vision is fit for purpose and then review it from time to time to see it is still so. Well, back in 2002, I'd been president for a year, or less than a year, actually, and we wrote the vision of the IPC before we got McKinsey in to help us with our first strategic review. We had to get down on paper what we were about before any consultants came in and started telling us what to do. I have to say that McKinsey did a great job, but I'm glad we got it down on paper. So what was that vision? Well, there it is up on the screen for you to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world. And I'll just take two or three minutes just to explain what that's all about. I know it makes pretty simple sense, but it took some time to get this together. And probably the most important word is the second one, which is enable, which is all about empowerment, but it's not about doing it for others. It's about creating a stage upon which athletes, upon which the members of the IPC can perform, and anything we can do to support that performance, that's what we're about. So to enable and Paralympic athletes. Well, of course, to begin with, they wanted athletes with a disability in there, and I said, absolutely not, we're not having that. And so I had to get my thinking pretty sharp early on, when I became president, to say, we're not having the D word involved in our vision. So, Paralympic athletes. But what are Paralympic athletes? Are they just Paralympians who perform at the Paralympic Games? Well, no, it's every individual that wishes to partake in Paralympic sport at whatever level. It doesn't matter what level, but we need to enable them, whether it's at the grassroots level, whether it's just to use sport as a vehicle to a far more Interesting life, or it's to try and get a gold medal at the Paralympic Games. So sporting excellence, that does make sense. But to inspire and excite the world? Well, we only had inspire in there to begin with, and then myself and our CEO did some media training and we were terrible at that. That was in 2003. But we did a bit of a whiteboard session, and a word that I put up there was excited. He said, I like that. Well, I said, if you like it, it's going in the vision. So that's where it became inspired and excite. But really, what happens before and what happened in London before you're inspired? Well, you're probably surprised the Americans use the word shock because they're expecting basketball players to not be able to even maybe catch the ball and stuff like this. And so you have to see it, you have to experience it. And so you're surprised, then you're inspired, then you're probably excited. I mean, the crowds in the park were amazing last year. The excitement there, you could. It was just this amazing human energy. And then if you do all that, then maybe you can think about changing the world as well, you know? And so there are a couple of words that don't appear in our vision, but definitely happen when it comes to Paralympics. And just before I move on, this surprise. Donna Ritchie, she was the captain of the women's wheelchair basketball team, the Australian one, the Aussies, in Sydney in 2000. And she put it in another way, and she said, paralympians don't have the time to worry about what doesn't work, they just maximize what does. And it's that transformational thing from the negativity of the D word to the positivity of sport. And I'll come back to that in a little while, but I don't know if you saw the values on there. They're not on there now. Now we've got Ellie Simmons going for gold, obviously, and probably succeeding in getting gold at last year's Games. But we have four values. I have to tell you that my view on values is that if you represent your values, do you really need them written down? But some people want them written down. So the first one is determination. And Alex Ferguson was asked before he'd sewn up the title last year, you know, what is the key thing that's going to get United, Manchester United, that is to win the title. And he said, it's determination. And he was right. Courage is the second one. Athletes don't see themselves as courageous, but everybody else Does. That's why that word's still in there. Inspiration. Well, Sebko took our third value and used it to, to inspire a generation. And the fourth one, equality, which is really pretty important. There isn't a disability act now in Britain, it's an equality act. And I really do support that title. Don't ask me whether I support what's in the act because I'm not ready. But I really do support that. And really, in a way, quality. You can look at sport for all at the moment. You know, it's everything that's not elite sport. I think it should be redefined and all sport should be part of sport for all and sport should be for all, should be for everybody. But equality and the way Paralympic sport affects people, affects people who try it or watch it. You know, you can start to realize you can be good at something because you might get a look when you've lost the use of your legs or your eyes or something. You wouldn't see it if you'd lost the use of your eyes, but you get the feeling that you're not very good at anything. So you raise self esteem, you practice this self determination and you experience fun, you feel good, you're healthy and you get to know and admire your body. And that's not just the parts that work, it can be the parts that don't work as well. But I'm a bit of a big head anyway. But if you saw the opening ceremony it in London, one of the final comments was, you are what you are and that's what it is. Paralympic sport. You're not trying to be somebody else, but you are what you are. So now, before I just explain a little bit more about why the Paralympic movement did take off in London, then I think we should just see a video just to bring back the memories of. Of London and last year. Well, that was a bit of a memory from last year, but seeing Boris Johnson with the flag there just before we get onto the next. Well, the slide's there, but I'll come back to it in a moment that we were in the green. I've just been in your green room here and it is a real nice little room where you can get together before you come on stage. But we were in the stadium. It was supposedly the green room, which. But it was like a concrete hole where myself and Boris and the mayor of Rio were located. And I said, what's up, Boris? He had a really depressed look on his face and he said, I don't want to give that flag he said, I'm not giving you that flag. I said, well, come on, Boris. I said, you're going to mess things up completely. I said, we're not like the ioc. I said, you can waive it as long as you want, as long as you give it to me. And eventually he did. Of course, it got passed on to Rio, but he didn't want that incredible spirit that had been in London and the UK for probably four months to disappear. And so that was Boris. But already Paul has referred to this slide here in his few opening remarks. But this is just a slide to show the number of tickets sold at the Olympics in 2012, and then the FIFA World cup from 2010, and then the Paralympics, 2.78 million tickets sold ahead of the four other events that are up there. And so London was amazing, just from that point of view. And it all kicked off from International Paralympic Day on Trafalgar Square a year before the Games. And the tickets were launched the following day. And within a week, I think a million had been sold and the rest's history. But it was quite amazing. I mean, really, it's this partnership with the IOC and the possibility to have both Games officially together in 1996 in Atlanta, Paralympics was small beer. But moving on with this agreement we've had with the IOC now since 2001, but the first Games that were affected by that, of course, were seven years hence. So the first Games were Beijing and then we had Vancouver, and so London were only the third Games where we had this relationship with the ioc. And then therefore, look out Sochi Rio and Pyeongchang in Tokyo. But moving on, as you can see from that, the British public were alive like never before. As I've said before, from May to mid September, 2.78 million tickets sold, 1 million more than in Beijing. And the atmosphere in the Olympic and Paralympic park, that's what I call it anyway, even though it's only called the Olympic park by most. But of course, I put a Paralympic in there if I can. It was indeed superhuman, and in the sense that hundreds of thousands of people were interacting in a hyper positive way. Each of them was having fun. And that was the key thing. It was fun. It was great to be alive, you know, in London and the uk. Last year still is now, by the way, but last year was exceptional. 4,237 athletes, 164 national Paralympic committees, 20 sports. There'll be 22 in Rio, by the way. And then moving on there, just to see that the impact of The London Paralympics was not just limited to the uk. Probably I'm blocking one of those slides there, but you can see that the TV coverage in hours and the accumulated audience has steadily risen. In fact, it's risen rapidly from Athens through Beijing to London. And this slide does not include the amount of home broadcasting to the home nation. So this is what has been broadcast to the world from the Games, not including, not including the whole nation. And you can see that the growth has been phenomenal. If we move to the next slide, you'll see a still of Johnny winning the 100 metres. But really, just to ask the question again, why was London so successful? Well, again, I'm going to acknowledge the debt that we owe to our close and productive partnership with the ioc. It's getting closer and it's getting better as we move forward. But I think we've also got to congratulate locog. What an organizing committee it was. I had the privilege to be on the board because I'm an IOC member, not because I'm president of the ipc. And we knew we were going to have good games, very good games, but I was still amazed about what happened. And I think a lot of it goes down to low cog, but a lot of it goes down to the way that the different teams involved in organizing both Games got on together and really gave to the centre and didn't want to be top dog, but they wanted to have all the different teams coming together. And you saw what that brought. And there was a mutually beneficial partnership with Channel 4. Of course, BBC had done it before, but LocalG decided after consultation with different parties, that they should go with Channel four. And I think that, that it paid off. There was 500 hours of coverage on their channels. Their superhumans advertising was termed an act of branding genius. And they won the Gold Lion Award at the Cannes Lion Festival and many other awards as well. But at the end of the day, as you can see from that, what made London 2012 were the athletic performances, were the athletes. Of course, Britain did amazingly well. And there we have the BPA sat down there with Tim Hollingsworth, the CEO. But the other thing that many, many other countries said was that it wasn't just Britain and the British athletes that the crowds were supporting, but it was the athletes from all over the world. And that was something very special and very specific. Maybe British, but also Paralympic. That's what happens at the Paralympic Games. And so awareness of Paralympic athletes. I think that there you see Tanny Gray Thompson, of course, she retired, I think she retired in Athens, Beijing. Thanks, thanks. And therefore her notoriety, of course, had dropped between September 2010 and September 2012. But if, then you look to Ellie Simmons, David Weir, Oscar Pistorius, of course, because of the Olympics and the Paralympics. Lee Pearson, one of our great equestrian riders. I don't know if we should call them athletes. Of course, call them athletes. Johnny Peacock and Sarah's story. And so a lot more athletes were known by the public, other than just Tanny Gray Thompson, if I may put it that way, and Oscar Pistorius. And so they really were previously on the fringe, but now really in the public domain. And I think another slide that I have up here, another picture, if we can move on to the next one, is Esther Vergeer. Now, she's without doubt the greatest wheelchair tennis player ever. And she retired after London. I think she was unbeaten in I don't know how many matches. And I was privileged to be present at the final in Beijing. I know I had an appointment to go and see Volkswagen about some sponsorship, but I just couldn't leave the final. And I had the CEO at Volkswagen saying, when are you coming? I said, well, I can't leave this. And then I ended up commentating down the phone to him on the match. And me went, it went one way and then the other, but she. But she won in the end. But she. Now I'm speaking to her later this week and she's absolutely committed to the development of Paralympic sport throughout the world and someone with whom we'll be working very closely. But the benefits of London for people with an impairment in the uk. Well, it's really a little bit too early to talk about the long term effect of the London Paralympics, but we can theorise and we've got some figures up there. 81% of people surveyed after the Games thought that there had been a positive effect on how people with an impairment are viewed by the British public. Even more significantly, 50% said their own attitudes had changed. And 70% of people with an impairment agreed that the London 2012 was inspirational for them. But I think what I've noticed, and you did say it was my sixth Paralympics when you introduced me, so that it's all right, but what happens again at a Games? Why are these perceptions transformed? And you know, there was Ian Jury who wrote what I think a terrible title for a song, but I came to realize during London that it was a great title for a song. What is it? Spasticus Artisticus. But why did he write it? Because it was. He was rebelling against the Year of the disabled in 1981, where all he saw was concrete ramps were put all over the show. But that didn't change perceptions one little bit. And so what happens at the Paralympics, it's not laws that change perceptions, sometimes you have to have laws, but it's positive experiences that stay forever in your mind and your perceptions get transformed. And that's what happened and that's what will continue to happen. But I think that there's Malou van Rijn from the Netherlands again. It's not that I've got a particular favorite in the Netherlands, and of course, there's a lot of British athletes that I'm showing, but another great athlete, really, Oscar Pistorius, is female, not double, but, you know, the female epitome of an amputee athlete. But you can tell me if I'm right with this, but in the UK, since the Paralympics, 50,000 more people have tried out Paralympic sport. Now, that's at all different levels and that's a great figure. And we've had a National Paralympic Day in the park on the 7th of September, and so things are really, really developing. But I think that what I would like to say is just a little story that my friend Gordon told me over there to put in. And it was about a young girl in South Wales who was normally a very placid girl, but after watching the game, she demanded that her mother take her to the local sports centre. And on arrival, she spoke to the staff and really demanded that she could play sport like her own friend, you know, like all her friends. Now that sports centre offers a suite of Paralympic sports, and that's happened all over the country and people are saying, oh, there's not a lot of legacy, there's lots and lots of legacy, but so much of it is happening locally and that really is how we would wish it to happen for people saying, I can do this, let me do it. But furthermore, as you can see from that, there was commercial success in London and csr, corporate social responsibility, another term that I can't stand, by the way. But we've moved from that to Paralympics being sound commercial practice. And we just announced recently, in conjunction with U.S. paralympics and NBC, that for the first time from the Sochi Winter Games and from the Summer Games in Rio, NBC will be showing Paralympic sport live in the usa. And that's a major, major breakthrough. I remember being interviewed at around midnight in Athens in 2004 on national radio in the US, and they were saying, isn't it a disaster for the IPC that you don't have TV coverage in the States. I said, no, it's not a disaster for us. I said, we will get it sometime. But I said, it's a disaster for the USA and US athletes and the families of US Athletes, and you should fix it and get it moving. Well, it's taken about nine years, but here we are and we've got loads of time. We're here for the long haul anyway. But I think also I've got this slide up here because this is really, as you can see, in the Great Lakes area of East Africa, where they're looking to. They're getting coached in sitting volleyball. But I just wanted to mention a little bit more about commercial sponsors. Sainsbury's, of course, were the first sponsor that only sponsored the Paralympics and not the Olympics, and they had an incredible return for their investment. But I think also I'd just like to give you a couple of quotes from bp, who were sponsors of both the Olympics and Paralympics in London and have since signed up with both the British Paralympic association and the British Olympic association and also with the International Paralympic Committee. And Luc Bardin, their group chief sales and marketing officer, has. Well, he sent me a testimony, really, as to why bp, on one page, why they were signing up with us. But I've just got three of the. Of the courts that he put in this unsolicited testimony, I can assure you. And he said, from the very first introductions BP had with National Paralympic committees, because they started with National Paralympic committees and then came to the international scene in a number of countries, we realized that there was something very special about the Paralympic movement and Paralympians. Then he went on to say, during the London Paralympics, the BP brand lived one of its very best associations. Our employees were deeply proud and our business partners were inspired. And finally, a little bit longer, he said today. And of course, he sent me this on the day that we signed up with them in July, he said, we're delighted to have extended our relationship through our global partnership agreement until at least 2016. We believe this continued association with the Paralympic movement can make a real and sustained difference to the way BP's values are lived. Hopefully, we can help your team to spread the word. With deep appreciation and congratulations for the tremendous human energy you've all shown in developing the Paralympic movement to this point. It has incredible and increasing potential to impact many important constituencies and people around the world. Just moving on to the brand and the Paralympic brand, another one of our strategic goals. I mean, listening to me, you'd think that the Job's done, job done, finished, over with. Let's get on to the next job in hand. But that's not the case. We've only just begun. And I think that we've put our position here on this degree of development, simple graph, but if you look where we were in Beijing, we just started to climb. Well, we've continued to climb to London, but look where the Olympics are. I mean, one of the most valuable and best known brands in the world. We're not really chasing the IOC with regard to the exposure of the brand. We've got, as I said before, a good relationship with them, but we are developing our own brand and we're moving at our own speed. But we must maintain the momentum from London through 2014, 2016, 2018 and now 2020 in Tokyo to really start to realize our full potential. Rio in 2016. Well, there's some figures up there. 10% of the Brazilian population are already interested in the Paralympic Games. And this was 40 months before the Games took place, compared to 12% in London. With two years to go, 75% of the Brazilian population are very much in favour of the Paralympic Games, 23% are neutral, and 70% of Brazilians are favourable towards brands that sponsor the Paralympic Games. Now, that might surprise you as to why that is the case, but if you look further down, you see the way the Brazilian Paralympic team has moved from 24th in the medal table in Sydney to seventh in London, and they're hoping for a fifth place, which they probably will achieve in Rio. And I think one of them there, you've got one of the greatest Brazilian athletes, Teresina Guillermina, 200 and 200 meter champion, totally blind and with an incredibly colorful. What do you call that sort of thing? Yeah, mask across her eyes. Thank you. But I think also we need to just tell a little story about why is it that Brazil knows about Paralympics? Well, the. Then he's still the president of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee, in 2004, decided that he would buy the TV rights from the IPC for Athens. And then he gave them to two television companies in Brazil. Didn't charge any money for it, but since then, Globo, which is the biggest TV company in Brazil, are the national rights holders for the Paralympics in Rio in 2016. And they're not the national rights holders for the Olympics, but this is the company that's got the widest coverage in Brazil, and that's owing again to a Paralympic manager, if I can put it that way, taking the initiative. Moving on now to this Young lady from Tokyo, as you can see, we've got the Olympic rings on the left because she was there at the presentation of Tokyo 2020 in Buenos Aires just a month ago. But of course, she's a Paralympian and moving forward and looking to Tokyo, that it was quite amazing, really, how I saw the Tokyo presentation in Lausanne at the IOC headquarters in early, early July this year, and the one thing it was lacking was that spirit, that passion. And, well, I don't know whether I should say too much, but of course, I'm very free with my advice. And I said to the CEO, you've just got to get more, maybe non Japanese passion in your presentation. And what did they do? Well, they went to this young lady, a Paralympian, Mami Sato, who really following Her Imperial Highness's presentation, right at the very start, it was Mami who introduced the front row of the presenting group, which included the Prime Minister. And she gave it in a very sort of upbeat way, which really transformed the whole feeling, I think, that the members got from the Tokyo presentation. Now, I'm not saying that it was this lady that swung it for Tokyo. They won by a big majority. And maybe presentations to IOC members may get, I don't know, 2, 3, 4, 5 votes coming your way that weren't there to begin with. But she had a great performance, she is a great performer on the track, but also now as a presenter, and I think also I've been giving an interview here. Where's the gentleman? He's down here. Now, before I gave this, before I started this lecture, there's a lot of things happening in Japan for Paralympic sport in the Japanese Paralympic Committee. They've got a vision now which goes to 2030 for the development of Paris sport in Japan. They had it before Tokyo got the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. But these Games are going to be an incredible vehicle to move this vision forward. And finally, if I may say, and it's great to hear it, that the Japanese government have realized that Paralympic sport should not be under the Ministry of Welfare, but should be under the Ministry of Sport. And so that's been moved there. Now, you might say that should have happened 20 years ago, but it takes time in different countries for things to happen, for the timing to be right, for the right people to be there, and real progress is being made there. So I'm coming to the end of what I've got to say now, but I think that slide that's up there, the impact of the Paralympic Games being far broader than just the impact of an amazing international sports event. And there written down, I would say, four of the principal objectives of the movement, they're not written quite that way in our strategic plan. But I think that increased attendance at the Games, whatever that might mean, by the way, more athletes, more sports, more media, more spectators, as you've seen, that's been growing to enhance the appeal of the Paralympic brand to sponsors already covered that. Particularly to encourage people with an impairment to take up sport at whatever level, but just take it up, enjoy it, feel good, move forward with it, and then to change perceptions and to have a far more favorable attitude to people with an impairment in the world. And that really has worked and will continue to work. So, finally, this young lady, Isabella, at one of our development camps around the world, one of the things that I was asked to talk about, and maybe we can talk more about it, maybe at question time, but it is, can we stage great Paralympic Games and can we also develop Paralympic sport around the world? Do we have the resources for that? Well, we didn't have until this latest third four year strategic plan. In 2011, we launched the Agitas foundation during the Games in London at the Paralympic Bowl. And now we have more resources. And so we have given equal importance in this current strategic plan, which finishes at the end of next year, to the development of athlete development around the world as well as the Games. And so they are our two key areas, along with developing the brand. And this young lady, well, she could be a great Paralympian of the future. But I think that also, if I can just take you back to that one point in our vision that we are about enabling Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence. But that's at any level that they wish to move to and they wish to view as sporting excellence. And just to conclude, before we get into some questions, I'd just like to say that, yes, it is the Paralympic movement that really has taken off in London and not just the Paralympic Games. Thank you very much.
- [35:51]
A
Thank you very much, Sir Philip, for your speech. We now open the floor to questions. If I can ask the audience, first of all, indicate that you have a question, but then wait for a roving microphone to come to you and if you could give us your name and affiliation, if that's appropriate as well. So who would like to open the conversation with Sir Philip, the lady in the third row.
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C
Hi, my name is Megan and I'm on the road to Rio Paralympics. My question is, how has the classification process differed from when you were an athlete to London 2012 and how do you see that changing in the future with Paralympic movement growing?
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A
Okay, do you want to answer that? And we'll wait for some other questions to.
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B
Is that what you would prefer? Yeah. So the question for Megan, just for your. Maybe I need to just explain it a little bit more. Maybe some of you are aware and some are not that each sport has its own classification system, so that really competition is a level playing field. You asked me about when I was competing long, long, long ago, but I wouldn't be here today if it hadn't been for the fact that I recognise, with one or two other people in wheelchair basketball, that we had a very bad classification system and it needed changing. And that's when I went up against, if I may say, the doctors at Stoke Mandeville, where the Paralympic Games started, and maybe gave the impression that I didn't like medical doctors, but they didn't really know much about sport, and that was the problem. And there was an incredibly capable doctor of sports science, a German, who developed a very good system called Horse Throw Kendall. But he wasn't accepted because, of course, he was lower order. He wasn't a medical doctor, he was only a doctor of sports science. So I had to hammer this new system through and we tested for it in 1983 at the World Championships, and it was brought in at the Paralympic Games, 1984. So I've got quite a bit of experience with classification. I have to say that because the Games and the athletes are so much better known now than they were when I was competing, classification has come more into the public eye. And so I think that I could answer your question by saying it's very different from sport to sport and leave it at that. But the thing that I'm very keen on is that we have to have the very best classification systems, not just so that the gold medal at the Paralympics is to the best athlete, but also if we don't have the best systems, then you won't get new athletes taking up the sport. And that's the thing that worries me the most. And so it's very important that we have the IPC classification code there, which is similar to the World Anti Doping Code, and it's been set up in a similar manner. And classification systems have to be evidence based. I have to say that I don't believe it's just scientists who can decide what evidence based is. And it has to. Every system has to relate back to the way that a specific sport is performed by the athletes. I think that the athletes have a lot to offer in the development of classification systems. And that's something that I'll be looking to bring in or continue with, because I've always felt that way over the next four years.
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A
Ok, we've got two questions on the far side, so. So Jay first and then the gentleman behind him, and then I'll come back after that. To the two gentlemen.
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D
I'm Jay Stoll, General Secretary of LSE Student Union.
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B
I mean, thank you.
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D
Firstly, it was absolutely inspiring. Probably wasn't the only one in the room watching the vt, getting a bit of lump in the back of my throat. And I saw it, it was an unbelievable summer. And also reminded me of the amount of hours I was glued in front of the television.
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B
So thanks for that.
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D
Being an LSE student, particularly interested in the avenues of growth that you kind of put out for the Paralympic movement as a whole, particularly the role of corporate sponsorship, I didn't find it at all surprising when you mentioned that the BP boss kind of came to you with an unsolicited email expressing that the movement of the Paralympic. The Paralympic movement's values, sorry, are not what they aspire to have.
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B
Are you.
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D
Is there a burden in any way on the Paralympic movement not to allow those values to be appropriated by companies who.
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B
I mean, you said with the rio.
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D
Stats that 70% of the Brazilian public have a positive view of companies who associate with the Paralympic movement. That's incredibly understandable. But is there not a concern on your part that there may be certain companies taking advantage?
- [41:11]
B
Well, I think it's up to us to make sure that we are not taking advantage of. And I think that. But I think what you have to do before you agree to a sponsorship, it's not, oh, please, come with your money and you can do what the hell you want. You can't. And I think that we have another international partner. Well, we have several, but, for example, Allianz. They are an international partner, they're not a worldwide partner, because they come in a category. It's a bit complicated, this. They come in a category that normally is given to organising committees, but Allianz are an international partner and it's those values that they really appreciate. And it's when you get a company that wishes those values to interact with the company, with the employees, it's not just a question of selling widgets on the back of the Paralympics. And that's something that I, as the president, but also our senior people looking for the right type of deal, have to ensure that we have that sort of connection and we don't have too many sponsors at the moment. We have five or six. But it's important that we have that connection on the values to begin with. And we aren't making massive money, but we aren't being taken to the cleaners either. But it's something that has to be right at the heart of what we do and we don't sell our souls for money, basically.
- [42:44]
A
Thank you, gentleman at the back.
- [42:46]
B
Hi, my name's Nick Butler from a website inside the Games. I wanted to ask about the Winter Paralympics next year in Kochi and firstly, how you think they will be in comparison with previous Paralympic Games. And secondly, there's obviously been a lot of attention on the supposedly anti gay rights laws in Russia and the paradressage rider, Lee Pearson was quoted this week as saying that he was ready to go to prison for telling Putin that his anti gay laws are an outrage. So I wanted to ask what you thought about this and whether you think it's an issue which could affect the Paralympic as well. To the Olympic Games. Thank you. I think. Well, coming to. Will the Games be great Games? I think that they will be. I was there in, I've been there several times, but I was there in, in March at the Chef de Mission seminar which takes place normally a year before the Games take place, normally at the same time of the year. And what I'm basing that on is the Russian state of readiness which will be there, but also the views of the major Paralympic Winter nations and the way that they probably came to Sochi this last March thinking that they were going to find things not to their liking, but they very much went away thinking that they would be coming to great Games. I think that coming to your second point concerning this Russian law, which is about not the education of children but the exposure of children to different types of teaching, then on that front, we as an organization are very much a sports organization. We've been in contact with the Russian government, of course, on this issue and they have written, we have it in writing. We have their assurances that this law will not affect any of the competitors, any of the teams, any of the spectators or any of the media. And therefore we are an apolitical organization. We're a sports organization and we're also an organization that believes that if change is going to be achieved, the best way of achieving change is to be in the nation where change is required. And most certainly from our perspective. Perspective with regard to if you consider that the Soviet Union replied to the possibility of the Paralympics taking place In Moscow in 1980, they said that, well, no, they can't take place because we don't have anybody with an impairment in the country. And I think that if you look at the way that that has moved on now we're in 2014, then sometimes it takes time for things to move on. But definitely from our perspective, when it comes to the acceptability and the changing of perceptions with regard to people with an impairment, we definitely believe we're making major progress there, and we'll make really major progress with the Games taking place in Sochi in 2014.
- [46:12]
A
Two gentlemen in the middle here. So first in the dark search.
- [46:21]
D
Thank you.
- [46:22]
B
I have a difficult Finnish name. Pekka Houkhtaniem is my name. I'm the Finnish ambassador here in London, but I'm not here in that capacity, but somebody who, with his wife, was inspired and excited a year ago. A question about ioc. How much attention IOC pays to the applicant countries, applicant cities, preparedness to organize Paralympics with good motivation and properly. Is it really an essential part of the package which these applicant cities have to present to IOC if they want to get the Olympics, that they also have to show that the Paralympics will be well organized? Absolutely so. And that situation has increased and increased as we've seen presentations for. Well, we've just seen for 2020, but if we look back to 2018, 2016, maybe London, when London got the Games In Singapore in 2005, they were one of the first bidding cities to really use Paralympians equally with Olympians in the bid. And I think that the presentations from bidding cities really do show you where the two Games are together. And each of the three cities that presented in Buenos Aires had Paralympians in their presentation and playing a major role in the presentation of their city's bid. And also in all the films that were shown, there'd be an Olympian, there'll be a Paralympian. So I think a lot of progress has been made. But I think also I have to say that there may have been an attitude 12 years ago, we are the Paralympics. There's our hand. Fill it with whatever we require. And I'm not a believer in that way of doing business, if you will. I believe that we have to create a Games. I nearly said a product then, and I hate that term. Sorry, but we have to create a Games and work very, very hard to raise standards ourselves before maybe we can say that we believe that we are on an equal footing to the Olympics and whether we'd ever say that. But I can say that we've got a developing and pretty good partnership now with the ioc, and that's developing all the time. And I think the future. There's really great prospects for the future. Hello, sir.
- [49:08]
E
Last time I heard you speak was at the closing ceremony. I was fortunate enough to be there. I had the great privilege of working in the Olympic Village during the Paralympics. My name is Dermot Keaney. I went to a lot of events in the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. Can I just say one thing? Costing. The pricing was perfect for the Paralympics. We were paying £400 a ticket for the Olympics. We were able to take our families. The amount of children that were in the stadium all the time during the Paralympics was astonishing and brilliant because I could take my child for five pounds and I paid 40 myself. So the costume was brilliant. My question, though, is about equipment. Working in the village, it was very, very apparent that a lot of the poorer nations had, at best, substandard equipment. The story is coming back to us as NPC assistants from athletes who walked into an Olympic stadium, presented with a discus that they had never seen.
- [50:13]
B
What is that?
- [50:14]
E
That's a modern championship standard discus. Well, this is something I've never practiced with or seen before. That is obviously a concern that the richer nations have carbon fibre, they have the best of equipment, and the poorer nations have none, or they have limited and it's not as good. The elephant in the room, sir, obviously, was that I know that the Olympic association did their very best to provide funds for equipment for poorer nations, but they didn't seem to get that equipment.
- [50:51]
B
Okay, Okay.
- [50:52]
E
I had four athletes there in my team.
- [50:53]
B
No, no, I'm not. I'm not doubting.
- [50:56]
E
I had eight officials staying in smart hotels in town. Yeah, I'm thinking that's. And my athletes didn't have shoes to run in.
- [51:03]
D
Right.
- [51:04]
B
No problem with that. But you mentioned something about an Olympic.
- [51:09]
E
We had a conversation with a member of the IOC who said that there were funds provided that no team should come with substandard kit. They did that. But they provided money to each nation that they should come.
- [51:21]
B
They don't. I'm sorry, they don't do that for the Paralympics. They probably do do that for the Olympics. Right. And I think you have similar stories maybe also happening at the Olympics that you have at the Paralympics. But coming back to your main point, that is something that really has been apparent ever since I've been president. I have to say that really, it's only in the last few years that we've started to have resources, both in a monetary sense, but also in a human capacity sense that we can start to address that. And so through the Agitos foundation, one of the aspects of the Foundation's work is to, and we've already done this, is to produce low cost, high quality, maybe not the very highest, but high quality chairs. And we've done that with a British company called Motivation, and we've had wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball, and most recently a very, very good track chair developed at a quarter of the cost that you have to go and buy it out in the marketplace. So we're very much aware what I said about the Olympics and the ioc, they up to now have not contributed at all, nor did they have a position where they needed to contribute. But with our, the new agreement that we have with the ioc, we have the possibilities to work on and access funds from Olympic solidarity. We haven't done that yet, but that's something that we could develop and there's another resource that we could tap into. But most certainly we need to get more level playing field equipment out there. We're aware of it and we're working on it, but it's going to take some time to really make a major difference.
- [53:19]
E
I think the audiences will know the difference as well. You know, they want a level playing field. They want to see strong competition.
- [53:25]
B
Absolutely.
- [53:25]
E
Thanks.
- [53:26]
A
I've got quite a queue. I have seen you, so bear with me. We're coming around, so if I can ask the lady in the pink scarf first and then the gentleman next, but one too. Okay, fair enough. Do you still have a question, though? Okay, well, we'll do it that way around and then I've seen the rest of you.
- [53:49]
F
Hi. Hi, Phil, how are you doing? My name's Adrian, Adrian Mills, and we run the charity that collects wheelchairs and sends out to Africa. Now, I've been involved with the African teams and Gambia was the team that we were trying to get to the Paralympics. And it was really great to be able to get the wildcard, to be able to get them into that. A lot of the people really enjoyed having people from Africa come in and taking part, but they didn't realize that when they went back, they would then go back to begging and not having the equipment and not having the support to keep going and get ready for the next Olympics. We're now looking at how we're going to get the teams from Africa, from Ghana and from Gambia and all the different countries to the next Paralympics, which is in Brazil. How do you feel that the IPC could actually help African countries?
- [54:47]
B
Well, I think that there. I've not gone through our strategic plan and I don't intend to, but the sixth goal, and we have six goals, is strategic partnerships, and one of those, of course, is partnerships with government. And we can't. We will not have even major Paralympic sports events in every one of our nations. But that is where the ipc, hopefully, in the future, thinking of Africa, through the African Paralympic Committee also, but where we can send people to interact with government and try and change the negativity of care, or lack of care for people with an impairment to one of positivity through sport. And I think, you know, the Gambia, we've had a lot of emails between each other going back about a year. It was before the Games, wasn't it?
- [55:47]
F
That's right.
- [55:47]
B
But I think that there has been progress in the Gambia and Suleiman from the Gambia has said that things are starting to move. I know. I was very disappointed to hear that the government of the Gambia have now decided to pull out of the Commonwealth. And so I think it's in doubt whether the Gambia will be at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. But I think we've got a major, major part to play in convincing government, because government, in most nations, it is government that is the major partner or potential partner to begin with. If we don't get through to government, then we don't make any progress.
- [56:28]
F
Do you know that we actually support the people in Africa now by trying to recycle wheelchairs from this country? People are throwing them away and we're now blaming the NHS to. To say, please, could we stop throwing things away and start giving them to African countries to help them to start working for the next Games. And we've got some flyers here for you, if you wouldn't mind.
- [56:53]
B
Oh, fantastic. Well, thanks very much.
- [57:01]
C
I think the work that the IPC is doing is fantastic. I wanted to bring it a little bit closer to home. I understand that you're an apolitical organization and that you have to remain that way, but could you say something about the fact that last year, as the Paralympic Games were going on, there were a lot of ordinary disabled people who are fighting battles to retain their Disability Living Allowance, and a lot of people who maybe could train are not going to be able to, because all their support, or a lot of their support is going to be withdrawn. I know it's a bit of a difficult area because you can't be seen to be, you know, but it is happening right in front of us. And a lot of those people boycotted the Games because they couldn't bear the irony of watching that alongside what was happening, perhaps in their own front room.
- [57:54]
B
I think that, yeah, I could say that, well, that's not what we do. Sport is what we do. However, I think that things are very difficult. I believe that a good number of people can be inspired by what goes on at the Paralympics and maybe have a more positive viewpoint on the way they can move forward with their lives. However, I'm not so naive as to think that many, many people who are on benefits require at least some form of benefit just to purely live. And therefore, I'm not getting into that argument. It's not something that I have expertise in, but it's most certainly not something either that we're not generally aware of. And it's something that we have to be fair in this country. And if we're not being fair, and I'm not saying whether we are or we're not, but if we're not being fair, then we need to do something about it. An action needs to be taken. So I've not really answered your comment or your question, but it's something that I really do want to say that we are aware of as an organization. We are the international organization. I'm not going to bring Tim in here, but, you know, Tim is from the British Paralympic association and we know that there was this feeling around prior to the Games that, you know, there was this somewhat of despair. You know, if this great thing was happening, but then other things were happening apart from it, then, you know, one on one probably doesn't make two in many people's minds.
- [59:45]
C
Hello, Priya Samuel, sport development professional. I'd like to know, touching again on the international development theme, how has. How can organisations such as UK Sport and Equivalence work alongside the IPC to develop and raise awareness of Paralympic sport and also increase education and training in. In developing nations, again to increase the number of future Paralympians.
- [60:12]
B
Yeah, well, a very good point. And so the partners that we look to, we're not just saying we've got our foundation, we want loads and loads of money and then we'll spend it ourselves. And therefore already we have a good relationship with Ukraine Sport on the development side. And we've been able to use certain funds provided by UK Sport in different parts of the world, particularly in East Africa so far. And also I've been involved in. Because it won't come to me. What's the name of. Not inspire a generation? International inspiration. And I was involved. I went with UK Sports to Azerbaijan to give back the international inspiration for Azerbaijan back to the government there, so that they could then run it rather than UK sport. So very much we are involved with not just UK sport, but other organizations around the world. Other governments around the world, such as the German government, were based in Bonn, and so we can have access to resources. And again, this is another area of strategic partnership. But absolutely.
- [61:35]
A
Ok, I've got three questions on this side and then I'll come to the middle. I am aware there's still quite a queue, so, Nicky Martin at the front, then the gentleman at the back, then.
- [61:47]
C
Hello, I'm Nicola Martin and I'm a lecturer in Critical Disability Studies at Southbank University. And my question is, I'm just interested to know if you do anything special specifically to assist people to get into sport when they've acquired an impairment through conflict, particularly through landmines. Because I'm thinking in Angola, for example, they have a competition called Miss Landmine, which is like a beauty pageant for people affected by landmines. And I just wonder if there's anything sporting that is going on that you're involved in, which I think is a little bit more active and healthy, really.
- [62:24]
B
I'm not sure we'd get involved in a beauty competition. But coming back to the serious side of things, in fact, the president of the African Paralympic Committee is an Angolan, Leonel Dorocha Pinto. And therefore, what we would say on that is that countries that are affected specifically by landmines, Angola, Sierra Leone, I think, and different countries such as that, what we'll find is that in those countries, the National Paralympic Committee, or even where they don't have a National Paralympic Committee to this date, when we work to try and create one, then we would be dealing with that situation because it would be those individuals who that could most benefit, you know, from Paralympic sport. I think that just looking to, you know, the way, help the heroes and, you know, we've had our soldiers coming back from wherever, you know, from Afghanistan, et cetera, the Americans have been the same. I know it's not the same situation, but when you have a situation where you have many potential sports people, you know, because of conflict, then that's something that we obviously would deal with.
- [63:44]
C
And the prosthetics is a real big problem. And then Miss Landmine Competition, the prize is the prosthetic limb, which I thought.
- [63:51]
B
All right, we maybe get involved then. Yeah, but. No, no, but I think just coming back to prosthetics, up to now we have these wheelchairs, but prosthetics is Another area where we have to become involved with this side of things, we have one of our worldwide partners is Otto Bock. But at the moment, Otto Bock produces competition limbs and fantastic pieces of technology which are way, way, way above what is required. You know, when someone's starting out and they need a prosthetic limb. So, again, that's something that we will be looking at in the future.
- [64:36]
G
Hello, Philip, over here. Hi, my name's Ned Boulting. I work for Channel 4. I've had the privilege of working on the Games last summer and then recently at the World Swimming Championships in Montreal. And it was that that I wanted to talk to you about, actually, because your graph of athletes awareness in this country was fascinating how those names resonated last summer. I don't know when that graph was taken, but I wonder if you did a similar poll now, whether some of those names might have dropped a percentage or two. And I was wondering to what extent the Paralympic Games particularly needs to move beyond the four year Summer Games cycle. Because I found covering the Swimming World Championships this autumn in Montreal for a British UK audience quite challenging. Because I felt like the Games themselves looked like they were being held in a municipal swimming pool in front of no one. And that's because they were being held basically in a municipal swimming pool in front of virtually no one who wasn't friends or family or coaching staff. Now, I understand the economic realities about why that might be the case, but there is a huge, it struck me there's a huge gulf between the Summer Games and everything else that happens in the intervening years before the Summer Games reappear again. I don't know if that's an unfair perception or whether it's something that the IPC feels it needs to really look at in terms of building these public figures that make the Games work.
- [66:03]
B
But it's being looked at and it's something that we're very, very much aware of this infilling between, and you mentioned, particularly Summer Games. And so that's starting to happen, but it's not there yet. And most certainly ipc, through its website, through all the different accounts that one can have these days that probably I personally am not accessing, that we do do as much as we possibly can for athlete profiles, but I think also there's a great amount of work that is being done and can be done nationally on that as well. And so more and more events, higher quality events. We had some difficulties out in Montreal. I think we had far more success at the Athletics World Championships in Lyon and where, again, it was a small stadium. We're not going to get 80,000 seater stadia filled with 80,000 speakers at the moment at our World Championships. You only need to look at the IAAF World Championships and see whether they're full to capacity or not for most of the time. But it's a big task. It's a task that we started to address and it's one that we'll continue to address. We know it's very important for our own sake, but also for television to remain interested and not just to be interested maybe once every two years, but definitely once every four years. So we're aware of the situation and I think it's a very good comment that you've been made and that you've made and you've hit the nail on the head.
- [67:46]
A
There's still quite a queue. Please bear with me. We've got some time, gentlemen, there.
- [67:59]
G
Hi there. My name's Paul and I was involved with Low Cog before and I thought it was fantastic. The Paralympic Games, I thought it was a great success and well done, everybody involved. But I do have a question. Compared to Beijing, Compared to the number of spectators that were in Beijing, it seemed like it was much more successful in London. Many more people were there. And also I'm thinking about, as a deaf person, Are there any plans to get more to get deaf people involved in Paralympic Games? Perhaps in Rio? I do think it's very important for people to become very aware of diversity in different groups or you said categories of people that can get involved in.
- [69:21]
B
Sport at that level. Well, I don't think I can say that there are plans. However, we have been approached by Deaf Olympics over the last couple of years. Now, Craig Crawley, who's the former president, Craig Crowley or Crowley, I'm not sure, the former British President of Deaflympics, who had a lot of communication with him about the possibility of deaf athletes coming back into the Paralympics. The deaf were part of the IPC and the Paralympic movement until they decided in 1995 to withdraw and do their own thing. So I think that needs to be stated. However, of course, the Paralympics now are far more successful than they were then. And I know that it is an objective of Deaf Olympics to get some events for athletes who are deaf into the Paralympic Games. Craig Crawley is no longer the president. It's now a Russian gentleman who was elected, I think, two or three months ago. I've already had lunch with him in Buenos Aires and discussions will be ongoing. But I think one thing that you need to be aware of is the lead time in any either new group of athletes or a new event, a new sport. Coming into the Paralympic Games, we're talking minimally seven years, and therefore this is highly unlike. It's not likely to take place in 2016, but it could do in the future. But this is something we have to look at.
- [71:16]
F
Okay.
- [71:19]
A
We haven't got a huge amount of time. I want to take four questions together.
- [71:23]
B
Oh, wow.
- [71:24]
A
Some people are going to get missed out. So, gentlemen in a blue shirt, and then I've got three men in red ties.
- [71:38]
D
My name is Daniel Musicant and I was London 2012 volunteer, including Paralympic athletes, marshal in the opening and closing ceremonies. And there's no doubt that last year's Paralympic Games was the most successful ever. I was lucky enough to get tickets for about 10 events, and the atmosphere was just incredible. And so was as well this year, the Anniversary Games and also the National Paralympic Day. I was lucky enough to attend and to volunteer at. What do you think the key things were that really made London 2012 a success? Was it the marketing? Was it the deal with Channel 4? Was it the pricing? And how do you intend to use some of those things to build on the success for other Olympic Games, Sochi and Rio, or some other big Paralympic events?
- [72:30]
A
I'll take them all together.
- [72:31]
B
Okay, thanks for that, Paul. My name is Alan Boardman. I was very privileged to work in the village with the South African Paralympic team as a Games maker. Sorry, which team? South African team in the village as a Games maker. I hope this isn't going to be controversial, but I just want to come back to the 10 television coverage and our friends across the pond. I think they had five hours edited highlights. Now I've seen them. Apparently they're going to have like 150 hours for searchie and for Rio. That just is not enough. I mean, compared to the Channel 4. I mean, we're not going far enough. And as you say, they really let down the athletes, you know, Tatiana McFadden, you know, all her Paralympic athletes, you know, it's a travesty. They really should be doing a lot more. And can you not put more pressure on them? I mean, for a country like the USA to be offering 150 hours of coverage in Sochi, and I'm not sure it's quite that much, actually. Well, exactly. Okay. You know, compared to Channel 4's 450 or 500 hours, you know, they should be going far beyond that.
- [73:37]
A
Okay, down here. Just turn around. It's behind you, behind you.
- [73:45]
D
Hi, good evening. Thank you for a fascinating talk today. My name is James Healer. I'm an alumni here and also been lucky enough since to work with a number of organise committees and Paralympic and Olympic bids as well. So very interesting to hear what you have to say tonight. I'm just quite interested to hear about a little bit more about what you said about the future of the movement and in particular what's perhaps the biggest opportunity for the movement when you're going such big markets. You've spoken about Sochi in Russia and Rio and then to South Korea and to Japan as well. And also perhaps looking at London 2012, just thinking about what was the, I suppose the biggest lesson from London 2012 that you want those other organised committees to sort of take on.
- [74:30]
A
And then one final question.
- [74:32]
D
Thank you. Didn't mean it to be the last one, Phil. Tim Hollingsworth. I'm chief exec of the British Paralympic Association. Chance, first of all, to correct my own mistake that Tani's last Games was indeed Athens, not Beijing. I realise that now. I would just like to say so that obviously in your talk and more particularly in the questions, the whole flavour of the room and the debate has been about the incredible platform that London created for the movement and for the Games and be it the points that have been raised as challenges. Ned's point about sport in between the Games time and actually keeping the profile up to the challenges of dealing with commercial partners, to the dealing with high impairment group needs versus top quality competition to equipment. What it's showing is a fantastic opportunity really, because of the sense of growing now that the movement has got on the back of London and we share that in the UK profoundly. But it's an international issue, I guess. To try and sum it all up, I'd say you have. I know this and I think others will potentially one more term as president of the International Panel Committee with elections being held next month. So you'll be coming out of the Rio 2016 Games four years hence. What would you like your legacy to be from that last period?
- [75:52]
B
Thanks, Tim, for that one. Let's get back to the first question.
- [75:58]
A
It's all legacy, isn't it? Legacy of London.
- [76:00]
B
No, no problem, no problem, no problem. But why was London so successful or what made London tick? Well, I think that Beijing had a lot to do with London really getting the message that. That I know that Seb Coe was already a fan of the Paralympics, but I had dinner with him at Browns, I think in Mayfair. I don't often go and eat in Mayfair. I can Tell you. And this was in October 2008, and I was a little bit early, so Seb wasn't late, but when he came in, it was as if he didn't sit down for a minute and a half. It was probably about 20, 20 seconds actually. But he just was waxing lyrical about 90,000 athletics fans in the Bird's Nest in Beijing. And this is the thing with Paralympics. You can talk and talk and talk all day, but if you go and see it, you won over. And I think that. So that was a very, very important part of it. And I think that looking to real, hang on, Rio had been in Beijing. That's right. But Rio, of course, was in London. And so it's previous games that really motivate future organizing committees to go one step further. But I think. Yeah, well, what was it? Was it the marketing? Was it Channel 4? I think Channel 4 and also BBC radio, of course. But Channel 4 did play a very, very big part. I mean, the way that they were so cheeky, you know, really saying thanks for the warm up, you know, with five days to go of the Olympics. But really from our point of view, and this is not running down the IOC and the Olympics, it's absolutely fabulous to have such an incredible test event before your own games. But what is probably the most frequent question that I used to be asked, and it was, well, wouldn't it be better to have the Paralympics before the Olympics? Definitely no, for many, many different reasons. And so I think it's a question of catching the bug. And if an organizing committee can catch the bug, Beijing didn't really take off until late 2005, early 2006, when there was a big two and a half years to go. And I met with some other of our board members who'd just been elected in Beijing at the end of 2005 with Wen Jiabao, the premier of China, in one of the great halls of the people. And I think we were due to speak for about 15 minutes and we ended up talking to each other because only one leader talks to another in China. You don't have a group discussion. I think we Talked for about 40 minutes about what sport can do for society, not just Paralympic sport. And then in February 2006, Hu Jintao declared games of equal splendor, the Paralympics with the Olympics. That's when we took off there. And there are these key moments when you either know you're going to take off and have success or then you start to panic if you don't get a key moment. And you don't feel it, but I think it was great to get it out to the world and to Britain in particular, through Channel four and all the innovation that they employed. I think it was amazing. I think, coming to the US situation, I think that what we have to say is that we've made significant progress has been made with this new deal. Things take time and we're here for the long haul. Now, we know everybody wants it immediately, but the world doesn't work that way. And I think the US has awakened to Paralympics and I think that's great and we have to build on it. But once it's on TV and it's live, then anything can happen. I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that Channel 4 didn't intend to have the second week or the main week of competition during the day on their main channel. They only intended it to be on their second channel, which is. Was that it? Yeah. But once they'd had the success of that first weekend, they scrapped all their plans and it all went on the main channel. And so it's that learning curve and it can be quite, quite instantaneous. It wasn't quite the same situation in France, but there was public outcry before the Paralympics in France, and that's why far more coverage went on TF. I don't know if it was 3 or 4, I can't remember. So it is step by step. But at times you can really make amazing progress and I think that we have to congratulate the US for their awakening and then we have to really work as hard as we possibly can to get what those great athletes like you mentioned, Tatiana McFadden, who is amazing, to give them the right exposure that they require. Future of the Paralympic Movement London 2012. What was the biggest lesson? Let's come back to that. Give it me again. Well, I think the first thing is that, listen, you've got to organize both Games together. You've not got to organize in the Olympics and then wake up to the Paralympics after the closing ceremony of the Olympics. And that's not happening, by the way. The right things are happening now. But when the shit does hit the fan for the organising committee, then you still have to give equal coverage to both Games. And we've had certain instances in the past of that not happening. But I think it's also little things, like, it was the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, but it wasn't the official title, wasn't the London Olympic and Paralympic Games until the the end of 2006. And so we had work to do, even with London, even wonderful London, but we did that work and they accepted that they had to change their legal name to reflect both Games. So there's many, many different things that an organizing committee has to do, but it has to believe and it has to be inspired. And that's our job and that's the job of previous Games to make sure that that happens once you get the inspiration and if you get it. As we talked about sponsorship and the fact that sponsors, we want the whole of the company to be inspired by the Paralympic values. Similarly, we want the whole of the organizing committee to be inspired by the Paralympics. And that's what happened in London and that's why they were such a great success. Now, Tim, what is my. What am I, in one word, what am I leaving to the world? I have no idea, really. Coming back to even one or two of the other questions in the fourth that were given to me. What we have to do with regard to the Paralympics and the infilling of world championships and regional championships and making sure we've got far more top quality events to show to the world. We have to maintain standards. You know, people will be now saying, you can never have another London. Of course we can have another London, but we have to make sure that we don't fall backwards from London with future Games. And so that takes a heck of a lot of energy and commitment to do that. But I really do see that we've got a two pronged approach to what we are about. We're about getting far, far more people participating in sport around the world, which has got to strengthen the elite level in the end. But we also have to maintain standards and improve standards and London can be improved upon, that's for sure. But also what you have to realise, and I've realised this since being president, is what a heck of a journey I've been on. When you think of the cultures that we've been to with the different Games, you know, if you think that the first Games I went to within two months of being elected was Salt Lake City, they didn't have a very good Summer Games in Atlanta. They really caught up in Salt Lake, though, with the fabulous, for me, Paralympic Winter Games, then we're in Greece, then we're in Torino in Italy, where we had the most great sporting extravaganza. But I can tell you also culturally and what's the big word I want, which won't come out here at the lse, Food and drink and stuff like that. It was an amazing cultural experience in Piedmonte for me and I'm sure for the athletes. And then you're in China and seven years preparing for the China Games don't prepare you, you know, for then dealing with the Russian culture, which people might think is similar to the Chinese culture just because of previous or current communism, but that is not the case at all. The way the Russians do business is completely different from the way the Chinese do business. And so you have to tap into these different cultures if you're going to have a chance of success. And so that's been one of the great learning experiences for me and that's something that we have to continue to do. But I've not answered your question and I don't think I'm going to. But I think that if I don't want to be remembered for a legacy such as, oh, he did this and he did this. I think what I want to do is to leave an organization that's vibrant and moving forward and excited about itself. And I'm not coming back to the vision there. It just came out, that word excited there. But I think that if it's in a fresh, vibrant manner when I leave it, then I can be confident that it's going to go on and it's going to be there for the long term. And whoever takes over, then they're going to move forward with it, but they're going to move forward with it with their personality, which won't be the same as mine, but as long as it's on general themes that seem to work over 12 or maybe 16 years, you've made the assumption that I will be finishing. You know, I mean, I did pick that up as well. And really I was intent on not, not speaking about elections here tonight because it is going out to the world and we have our electoral commission, you know, working very hard to watch what is said, etc. So. But it's just so exciting to be president of the IPC at this moment in time. And I really do pick up on the point that you made about difficulties and problems. I always view those as opportunities. And it's an amazing world out there for the Paralympics going forward with an amazing amount of work to do. I did say in one of those slides, we've only. I didn't say it, but I'll say it now. We've only just begun and watch out. And we've got a heck of a.
- [87:42]
E
Lot of work to do.
- [87:43]
A
And with that, I really need to bring this to an end. Can I thank the audience, particularly those of you who didn't get to ask your questions. There were many more. We could have gone on much, much longer.
- [87:53]
B
Give me a drink.
- [87:54]
A
Can I thank Sir Philip in particular for his time this evening, for finding time for us in your busy schedule? It was a great pleasure for us all to. To have you here and to have this opportunity to engage with you in what's been a very, very interesting conversation. So to draw this to a close, can I invite you all to join with me in showing our appreciation and thanking Sir Philip for tonight's presentation?