Dr Ian Brittain, Centre for Business in Society
Having just returned from Paris from my sixth summer Paralympic Games, tired but happy, now would appear a good time for a few reflections upon the Games in Paris and some musings regarding what the legacy of these Games might be for disabled people in Paris and France more generally.
Performances Were Extraordinary
I would have to agree with the assessment by Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson that the Games in Paris were “amazing with packed stadiums, intense competition, great performances and the event has shown the world what sport can do”. The French fans were amazing and extremely loud, especially if a French athlete was competing. Some of the venues were spectacular, like Chateau de Versailles for the Para Equestrian events or the Stade d’Eiffel for the Blind Football with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop. The quality of the performances was extraordinary. I was privileged to witness Matt Stutzman, the armless archer, win the men’s compound open gold medal in a Paralympic record 149 points out of 150 – a score any archer, disabled or non-disabled, would be proud of.
The Games Mean More Than Sporting Prowess
The Paralympic Games has two main roles to fill. The first is as an elite level international sporting competition for athletes from around the world. The second is as a platform from which to start a debate about transforming the lives of all disabled people within society by promoting inclusivity and accessibility. These two roles are closely linked. Without the sport and the international media coverage it garners the second role would be impossible. As with many previous host nations of the Paralympic Games the French team performed well in front of their home crowds, finishing eighth in the medal table with 75 medals, up from 14th with 55 medals at Tokyo 2020. There was also major investment in accessible sports facilities across the Paris region. There also appeared be to a major increase in interest in parasport amongst the home crowds, if the packed arenas and vociferous support of French teams and individual athletes was anything to go by. The trick now for the host nation is to build upon this success both in future parasport events and as a springboard to improve the lives of disabled French citizens.
The Real Test Is Now The Games Are Over
The real test will come now the Games are over. Will these Games, which are being lauded as the best Paralympic Games ever, a title previously reserved for London 2012, truly impact the lives of the average disabled citizen? Personally, in the lead up to these Games I was quite sceptical about this. The biggest issue was the Paris metro system, which Fox and Standley describe as “absolutely scandalous” that more had not been done to improve its accessibility ahead of the Paralympic Games. According to Salguero, “the first Paris metro opened in 1900 and the network has grown to become the busiest in the European Union, with 320 stations on 16 lines carrying over four million passengers a day, but only 29 stations are wheelchair accessible”. Personal experience has taught me that Salguero’s claim that “the systems work almost perfectly, with a high frequency of trains and almost no delays” to be pretty accurate, but as he also states there are still 291 inaccessible stations. There is also almost no tactile paving and many trains have no announcements to say which station you are arriving at to assist the blind and visually impaired. However, it’s not just disabled people who struggle. There are numerous stairs throughout the network that means tourists, and particularly older tourists, trying to get to their hotels by train struggle to transport suitcases throughout the system.
Fox and Standley claim that instead of investing fully in the transport system to make it accessible, the French government elected to invest €125million making all the city’s buses accessible for up to two wheelchair users per bus. Given that there were nearly 300,000 disabled spectators for the Paralympic Games in Paris, the potential for some very long waits for wheelchair users to board buses was clearly there and even that was dependent upon non-disabled people not filling those wheelchair spaces with prams or luggage and then refusing to move them. Accessibility is about more than just physical barriers, as attitudes towards disability amongst the wider population often plays a major role in how effective accessibility measures are (Duignan et al, 2023). It should be noted that the day before the Paralympic Games opened in Paris, possibly prompted by increasing negative press on the issue, the International Paralympic Committee put out a press release stating that the President of the Il-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, had made an announcement that they would commit to making the Paris Metro transport system accessible for all, stating its delivery could be Paris’s greatest Paralympic legacy. The project is estimated to cost between EUR 15 and 20 billion and be delivered over two decades. Whether the political will and resources for this project will be sustained now the Games are over remains to be seen, but it certainly highlights the power of the Paralympic Games as a media saturated international sporting event to impact the wider society. If it does come to fruition, it will be a fantastic legacy from Paris 2024 that will not only give access to society for disabled people, but also improve education and job opportunities, as well as making the city far easier to get around for local citizens and tourists of all ages. Let’s see…
Reference
Duignan, M., Brittain, I., Hansen, M., Fyall, A., Gerard, S. and Page, S. (2023). Leveraging accessible tourism development through mega-events, and the disability-attitude gap. Tourism Management. Gold Open Access – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517723000481.
Through understanding the impact of organisations’ activities, behaviours and policies, the Centre for Business in Society at Coventry University seeks to promote responsibility, to change behaviours, and to achieve better outcomes for economies, societies and the individual.
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