Disability Sport and Society

public utility- Member of the French Paralympic and sports committee- Member of the French National Paralympic and sports committee- Member of the International Paralympic committee A few figures35,000 Licensees+ of 60,000 practitioners16 regional committees in mainland and overseas88 departments25 recreational or competitive sports12th at the Rio Paralympic summer games4th at the 2014 Paralympic winter games in PyeongChang Today, the expertise of the FFH and the FFSA is recognized by many sports organisations and French authorities but ministry for sports encourages all federations to include the practice of sports for disable people in their federal project. The challenge is to give people with disabilities the « choice » to practice in specific or ordinary environment.3- An integration not so easy to carry outSports federations are the first actors in the development of sport practice for disabled persons and French ministry for sports has allocated some credits to promote this activity with 4.43million euros in 2014 to 6 million in 2016. Of course, the controlled and sustainabledevelopment of dedicated sports are aimed to increase and improve the sport offer to disabled people and give them an access to quality and proximity.By the way, despite these constant actions since the 2005 law, the practice of sports by people with disabilities remain much lower than in the rest of the population. French authorities, federations and other sports organisations need to remain mobilized to promote with ambition and method the accessibility of all to sports practices.Governance issues57 proposals for new sport governance, responds to the Prime Ministers request:In September 2018, a report with 57 proposals recommending a total overhaul of the French sport model has been remitted to Roxana Maracineanu, Minister of Sport. This report aims to give sport federations and the National Olympic Committee greater autonomyEngage in a process of trust in the sport movement by giving sport federations, National Olympic Committee and local actors greater autonomy. States action will refocus on the essential tasks of coordination, regulation and control, and ethicsThe objectives to reach are obtaining success and victories at the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and increasing the number of participants by three millionIndeed, Public authorities, federations and the French Paralympic and sport Committee must be mobilized to strengthen the commitment in favour of disabled people. Ministry of sport is already committed to a strategy of development and promotion and keep on going with incentives to sports players so that persons with disabilities can be taken into consideration in each sport initiative such as competition, leisure activities, events, training, internship…The French Paralympic Committee (CPSF) as representative of the Paralympic system in France is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). It is a major actor to coordinate the Paralympic movement and assist its member federations. He organized and structured the French delegation at the Paralympic games.18 federations are currently members of the CPSF:- Founding members: FFH and FFSA- Members of the Paralympic college: FFaviron, FFbadminton, FFcanoe-kayak,FFcycling, FFequitation, FFaekwondo, FFtennis, FFarchery, FFtriathlon- Associate members: federations whose disciplines are included in the program of the Paralympic Games but managed by the IPC and federations whose disciplines are non-Paralympic: FFbaseball and Softball, FFbasketball, FFgolf, FFhandball,FFhockey, FFswimming. Founded in 1992, the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF) now benefit from a key position in the sports field in France and internationally and carries out multiple missions:- A strategic role being the official counterpart of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) for France- Organizing and structuring the French delegation at the Paralympic games or other international competitions- Represent, defend and coordinate the French Paralympic movement with IPCs- Promote the unity of the Paralympic movement- Encourage the development of high-level sport and sport for all In this context, the organisation of major events should encourage the access to all handicaps. Over the past several years, the visibility of the sport and disability sector has improved. Many websites, radio, TV and magazines covered the last Paralympics Games but despite these advances, the high-level athletes with disabilities still suffer from a deficit of image and notoriety about their sporting performances.Evaluation of good governance and critical analysis1- Impact and influences of an Inclusion of disabled people in the French National sportsfieldsThe first of these influences is international and Paralympic. the international sporting context has changed due to the question of the inclusion of people with disabilities in the mainstream sport s system. The sport governance is now handled by independent international federations rather than by the International Paralympic Committee. This is a real challenge for national organizations who need to rethink their administration.Indeed, the IPC has been changed into an event management institution with a major target which is to make the Paralympic Games the second largest global sporting event. Therefore, little by little he gave up his role of organizer of the disciplines.An agreement between the IPC and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) push the high-level sport for people with disabilities, promote self-governance for each Paralympic sport, each one being an integral part of an international sports movement for able-bodied athletes. The goal is clear: give national Paralympic committees more influence and more responsibilities in the management of Paralympic sport to obtain a better performanceTwo main options are proposed:- Become independent sports with autonomous and disability sport organizations: Theinternational Wheelchair Basketball Federation- Be part of an international disciplinary federation sports governed by mainstreaminternational federations: The International Canoe Federation, archery, cycling, table tennis, horse-riding, rowing, alpine skiing Paralympic Games in Rio integrated the new disciplines according to this model which made Rio 2016 the year of transformation for Paralympic sport.2- The French model appears to be in tension sport for all versus high performance sportNantenin Keïta 400 meters, september 2016The new rules and the decision of the IPC to delegate the organization of major competitions to international federations created conflictual situations on questions of selection and registration. Cooperation and relationship with disability sport organizations are complex for traditional sports structures and it is not so easy to apply the management of mainstream model to the handisport model to obtain better results and performance.IPC and international sports institutions put pressure on the actors of the French sports environment in matters of sport management, mainly for high-level sport for people with disabilities. Indeed, initially based on participation of sport for disable people, the IPC is now investing in high-performance to make their games and international competitions a show.But the fact is that France need medals. Ségolène Neuville, secretary of State for persons with Disabilities faced a real dilemma when she had to answer the question How to win more medals and she said: there are two different things: wanting Paralympic athletes and medals at all costs and wanting clubs that welcome people with disabilities.There is a relative correlation between games success and living conditions of people with disabilities. The researcher Ian Brittain internationally recognized expert in the study of disability and Paralympic sport explained that success comes through political and financial investment specially on Paralympic sport. This is the case for China, first at the medal rankings but whose disability policies are still very limited. Another example is United Kingdom who obtained big success in 2012 for London Games but the Independent highlighted the governments hypocrisy towards disable people, denouncing some budget cuts.Ian Macrae; Editor, Disability Now said on this matter Once the Paralympic circus leaves town, things will go back to pretty much normal. The same government with the same zeal towards benefits will still be in power. Many of us will continue to live in relative poverty Then, the equation is not so easy to solve mainly for France who drastically came down in the Paralympic medal rankings from the 4th rank in 1992 to the 12th rank in 2016 in Rio. To succeed at international competitions and Paralympic games, massive investments must be done on preparation for high-level athletes. To reach high performance the Paralympic movement tend to professionalization and finally, has been forced to adopt the same recipe for Paralympic Games than the ones used for Olympic Games.In France some critics are raising against huge investments in high-level practices at the expense of the other forms of practice. Some French leaders refuse to sacrifice disciplines with few medals for others earning more medals. By the way, although the foreign models are criticized, the French Federation handisport has decided on priority disciplines in view of the 2020 Games. A new policy to detect young people with a view to Paralympic success has been launched.French government defends a sport policy and wants to favour accessibility and integration in disability. The objective is to support and finance all federations involved including non-Paralympic federations to make the performance of French teams in international competitions a national issue; its a question of international prestige for the country.3- Cross-federal cooperation as a solution?Radical reforms generate a lot of uncertainties. The new governance model has not been experimented yet and lead to significant risk-taking, a short time before Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. Establish a link between valid high-level sport and high-level handisport might be a solution with a cooperation between disciplinary federations and specific federations to improve the preparation for the Paralympic Games. For example, the handisport federation of tennis organizes the rules and the national circuit whereas the tennis federation supports the best athletes so that they increase their chance of medals. French wheelchair tennis is the most competitive in the world. How to explain this French success? Tennis is the second most practice sport in France and the quality of the training contributes to the important number of handisport champions. The best French champions can receive financial aids from the Fédération française handisport (FFH) and the Fédération française de tennis (FFT). Moreover, the two organizations signed a collaboration agreement in 2011 to shine French tennis at the 2012 London Paralympic Games.French wheelchair tennis would also draw its strength from the number of competitions held in France. The media is getting interested in the discipline of wheelchair tennis thanks to the organization of a tournament in Roland-Garros which takes place at the same time as the prestigious meeting and where players are entitled to the same treatment as Rafael Nadal and others. By the way, some differences remain for the winnings and the number of spectators.French tennisman Stéphane Houdet Paralympics 2016: Cindy Moreau wins first French medalOrganization of the high-level for canoeing, triathlon and rowing has also been delegated by Handisport Federation to disciplinary federations. For Judo, the preparation of Paralympic athletes is conducted within the federation of disable sport but supported by the French federation of judo. this federations take part in the change and demonstrate that it becomes possible to influence the International organizations. In all these disciplines, France was awarded a medal in Rio and the investment did not come at the expense of a reduction in resources for practice for all. Thanks to this success and positive issues these models of cooperation should be taken into consideration in the debates and eventually become the norm.The objective is to build a French model able to resist to international pressures, able to work for a cooperative governance between disability sports organization and mainstream sports organization, able to convince that the Paralympic Games are not everything and able to denounce the exclusion of people with disabilities in the able-bodied environment.