I was looking back at my blog from this time last year when I shared with you the things I was looking forward to in 2020. I nor anyone else could have imagined the year we have just had. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the pandemic has changed the world and its impact will in some cases remain with us for ever. Many lives have been lost, businesses ruined, the NHS placed under the most extreme stress and the economy is going to take a very long time to recover. In our little space we have pretty much lost a whole year of sport, a whole year of being together, enjoying one another’s company and the game we love. I know this has had a big impact on many of us particularly where we have been unable to get out and about easily and where we have been without our usual gang of friends to socialise and play with. I think many of the club committees have done a great job with virtual get togethers, quizzes and the like, and my team has worked hard to put lots of interesting content on the website, but none of us would pretend this has been a substitute for us getting together and playing one another in the competitions we all love.
There is no easy way through the current crisis and we can expect more disruption to our daily routines which will affect all of us in different ways. It is important that we work through our emotions, talk to those who we are close to and try to focus on those things which make us feel good. In a blog I wrote towards the end of last year I wrote about the importance of ‘hope’ and how it is a real energiser. It is important to look ahead, to visualise the future and it is a sense of hope and expectation that keeps me positive. And there are lots of things that can give us hope. The big ‘game changer’ we are all relying on is the vaccine which is now out there with the promise that by the summer the majority of us will have received it. As more people become vaccinated and as the rise in COVID-19 cases is brought under control we can expect an easing of restrictions and a controlled return to play. We are still positive that by the summer we will be able to have some form of competition and that remains the target we are all aiming for. I am hopeful that we may be able to get clubs back on a stepped return to training by around Easter time and then as things improve we can work our way through the stepped approach to full competition. You know I cannot guarantee this because the virus and the speed of the vaccination programme is out of our control, but it is important that we have hope and can work towards a realistic aiming point based on what we currently understand.
There are other ‘hopes’ I think we all share and one of these is the importance of recognising and doing more to understand and address the inequalities that exist in our society, many of which have seen even greater exposure due to the experience of the pandemic. As a Paralympic sport we champion the rights of disabled people but we also need to recognise that inequalities still exist within our sport and we need to do more to address this. We have lower representation from individuals from ethnically diverse communities and female players, and in the next year we want to ensure we understand the barriers they face and how we can reach more people to become involved in our sport. We will be developing some specific initiatives during the year to do this and also working with our clubs and volunteers to support them to be part of this.
We have already had a great start to the year. The news that we have regained funding from UK Sport for our performance programme and GB Team is welcome. This is a massive achievement and I would like to thank everyone who fundraised for the team, sponsored and helped us by giving their time freely over the last four years to enable us to maintain a competitive team, which has not only retained its European title but has actually increased its world ranking to 4th. The ‘self-help’ approach to funding the team will have demonstrated to our partners at UK Sport that we would not allow the loss of funding to distract us from our ambition to be medal winners. I would also like to acknowledge here the work and commitment of the athletes over this period. They have not had the individual funding enjoyed by their counter-parts in other elite sports but that has not in any way impacted on their commitment to perform. Likewise many of our staff, including all three coaches, have worked as volunteers throughout and I thank all of them. We are all now very much focused on getting back to the performance level we had reached prior to the first lockdown so that we go into the summer at peak performance level. Ahead of that we are still planning for the Quad Nations in Leicester in May and the Canada Cup in Vancouver in June. We will have to see if the conditions allow these to take place but we certainly hope so and these are the competition opportunities we are now targeting.
The restoration of UK Sport funding also gives us the opportunity and confidence to better plan for our future GB Team. During 2020 we developed a new GBWR Performance Pathway document to show how we will recruit, support and develop our next generation of GB athletes. A lot of people contributed to developing this including athletes, coaches, and the team at the Peter Harrison Centre at Loughborough University who provide our sport science support. We will be starting to implement this during the year and the document will be available on the website shortly for anyone to read. Investing in Talent is a key priority for us this year and for beyond. We understand that we need to do much more to identify and develop individuals who have the potential to represent GB. We want to see athletes who are challenging current GB athletes for a place in the squad and we need individuals who are ready to step up to take the places of those who are nearing international retirement.
Finally, almost all of you who play the game have dealt positively with enormous personal challenges you have faced in your lives. Being close to many of you over the years has greatly shaped my thinking and has helped me to be more resilient and more balanced about what is and is not important. I know that together we will come through this latest lockdown and in the coming months get back to doing what we all love with those whose company we all enjoy.
David Pond
Chief Executive
