The fantastic news which provides the sport with in excess of £3.5M over the next 4 years of lottery and exchequor funding brings to a close an extraordinary year for our sport. At a time when many families and businesses are struggling with the impact of the economic situation, it is a real privilege to have been awarded this funding and it is also a mark of the confidence UK Sport and Sport England have that we are on the right track to really grow the game in this country and to produce medal winning teams. Whilst we are one of the fortunate sports, others have not all been so lucky and you will have seen some of the comments in the social media and in the headlines from individuals who feel that their sports have not benefited from any Paralympic legacy. Their disappointments fuel an even greater sense of responsibility in me that we have to use this funding wisely over the next 4 years to create our own legacy from the games. I was struck by a columnist in the London Evening Standard who wrote, ‘ The moral obligation, as well as the financial one, now behoves those lucky few with pie on their plates to prove they are worth it’ – and that is very much our intention as we now start to deliver the plans we presented – to prove we are worth this public investment.
2012 will of course be etched in history as the year of London 2012. If we are honest, there is a ‘bitter-sweet’ element in this for us. Whilst the Paralympics was a fantastic success and has brought disability sport to the forefront of the public’s mind, we are all probably disappointed that we did not get near a medal winning position. It has been important to reflect on this and to understand what changes and improvements we have to make in order to progress but it is now time to use this knowledge and to move on. Our focus now must be to grow our game, provide great opportunities for everyone who wants to play and to create a performance focused squad who can medal in Rio. Although it is tempting to measure the success of 2012 by the London result alone I think that would be a mistake and over the year there has been other real highlights for us. The most encouraging for me has been the growth in interest in the sport which is already leading to new players and new clubs. Plymouth and Southampton are now pretty well established, Glasgow is going great guns and there are others in the pipeline. After many years of little or no growth this is great news. Clearly related, has been the increase in the sport’s profile which has been beyond anyone’s expectations. Our media partner Onshore and Simon Whittam in particular can take great credit for this as they have delivered on what has been a 3 year strategy which meant we were often the first sport the media wanted to talk to. Who would have thought our sport could command front page headlines in the national press? This has also increased our commercial potential and we are now working with a number of partners who will help to provide funds and other resources to the game. Another major success in 2012 was the election of Richard Allcroft to the IWRF Board. This is a fantastic achievement and provides us with a real opportunity to influence the wider development of the game. Congratulations to Richard who along with Mike Spence is also providing real ‘grassroots’ experience to the Board of Trustees. There have been plenty of individual successes also but perhaps here I will mention two weddings and offer congratulations again to Alison and Andy Barrow, enjoying their honeymoon as I write this, and Eileen and Ross Morrison. There is plenty to look forward to in 2013 but I will save that for another blog and just end by saying a very big thank you to all who help deliver the sport – our volunteers, officials, coaches, sponsors, partners, Trustees and staff, and to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and every blessing for 2013.
David Pond
