My message at the start of 2021 is about looking forward. This feels obvious as we go through the current pandemic. I was hoping to start the year with a clear vision towards how we may be re-starting international competition after a year of no wheelchair rugby. The situation is still serious in many parts of the world and I was saddened recently to hear that the UK had suffered 100,000 deaths from this non-discriminatory virus. This unfortunately is not isolated and we are seeing high levels of infection globally.
The hope of a vaccine being successful in battling the virus is no doubt high on everyone’s thoughts but we must maintain the guidance of our national governments, particularly for those of us that are still isolating and possibly in a national lock-down. It’s encouraging to see how some nations have successfully contained the spread of the virus.
Our vision of being a “World Leader in Para Sport” is still very much alive. It was not through choice but the pandemic has allowed the organisation to review what we do and how we go about it. It has not diminished my ambition and the collective belief of all involved in the IWRF in driving towards our vision. We mean this in many ways and as the year unfolds, you will see the IWRF growing from strength to strength with several initiatives across the whole range of our activities including governance, education, anti-doping, disciplines, classification, rules, competitions. We will keep the communication channels open and if you wish to contribute on any matters, we encourage you to let me know.
I would like to expand on two areas, competition and disciplines.
Firstly, guiding the sport through the need to re-evaluate its international competition structure for the next four years. Whilst the postponed Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games defined a large part of the structure, there was a need to keep a firm focus on the World Championship in Denmark in 2022, our Zonal Championships and our inclusion of the low point game in The World Games, Alabama 2022.
Also, the exciting International Wheelchair Rugby Cup in Paris 2023. Our sport partner, World Rugby continue to be supportive and we are working with them more closely to ensure our competition is successful and complements the “mega event” that is the Rugby World Cup, France 2023.
Secondly, by continuing how we approach engaging and developing with disciplines in addition to the Paralympic wheelchair rugby game. It is an exciting concept and also one that for some are either concerned or unsure about. For me, this is about providing the opportunity for more people to play wheelchair sport. Since I first started playing the game in the early 1990s, people have come along to training and wanted to be included. I always tried to provide the opportunity but it was always tainted with having to tell people that they couldn’t compete either nationally or internationally. Having this pathway from training to competition is central to giving people the inspiration and the aspiration to “have a go”.
Developing alternative disciplines provides more “Rugby for All”. Our classification system is one of the best in the Paralympic Movement and we should be proud of this. It is not perfect and we know that for some individuals we provide the opportunity of “protests” to try and ensure we provide consistency in their final sports class.
Classification defines which individuals can compete but only in the Paralympic discipline. I know that there is room within our organisation to be more inclusive and attract people with functional abilities that can compete in disciplines such as Rugby 5s.
This is how we can grow the sport not just internationally but nationally at the grassroots. We can create stronger club teams that can have both disciplines with an overlap so that some players can compete in both disciplines. At our membership conference last year in October we saw that approximately 42% of Rugby 5s athletes can also compete in the Paralympic discipline.
I continue to wish everyone their best in how they as individuals and their countries tackle the pandemic. Keep active as much as is safely possible.
Kind regards Richard
Richard Allcroft
IWRF President