Sharing the stage: Is it time to merge the Olympics and Paralympics?

The just-completed Commonwealth Games featured para-sports in the main program. With the ten-year run-up to the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games now underway, should we be advocating for greater integration between the Olympic and Paralympic Games?

Four-time Olympic medallist Jessica Fox (left), three-time Paralympic champion Dylan Alcott and, eleven- time Olympic medallist Emma McKeon. Source: AAP

Key Points

• The just-completed Commonwealth Games featured para-sports in the main program.
• Should we be advocating for greater integration between the Olympic and Paralympic Games?

The Commonwealth Games wrapped up in Birmingham this week after incorporating the biggest para-sport program in the history of the event.

Skimming through the schedule, table tennis appeared in the same time slot as para-table tennis, swimming next to para-swimming, and cycling next to para-cycling as part of a program of eight sports.

And off the back of its success, there have been calls for greater integration between the Olympics and Paralympics. Currently, they are held as separate events at Games host cities, with the Paralympics following the Olympics.

But members of the para-sport and Paralympic community told The Feed conversations around incorporation fail to address a few key factors.

'I'm proud to be a Paralympian'

Sarah Stewart, a three-time Paralympian and three-time Paralympic medallist in wheelchair basketball, said sometimes the people making these calls don't appreciate the Paralympics as its own significant event with high-performance athletes and its own rich history.

"Sometimes it’s coming from the perspective that the Olympics is so much better and the Paralympics should be in there, rather than saying that the Paralympics itself is so brilliant on its own," Stewart said.

"Sometimes people call me an Olympian and think that it’s a compliment. I don't consider that a compliment. I'm proud to be a Paralympian."

Three-time Australian Paralympic medallist Sarah Stewart says a merger could dilute the message of the Paralympics. Credit: Sport the library/© Sport the library

Her memories of competing at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Paralympics are pure bliss. She remembers it as a time when sport, as well as disability, was celebrated.

"You're in this big, beautiful environment that is for a couple of weeks totally dedicated to sport and people with a disability," Stewart said.

Sometimes people call me an Olympian and think that it’s a compliment. I don't consider that a compliment. I'm proud to be a Paralympian.

Wheelchair basketballer Sarah Stewart

This celebration and message could be diluted by the sheer scale of a combined event.

"The practical reality is with the Olympics and Paralympics, they're the two biggest sporting events in the world," Stewart said.

"How would you even do it?" she adds. "Comm Games, even though it seems big, is actually a relatively small event, so you can have that mix in there."

Jamaica's Usain Bolt celebrates with the crowd after his team won the gold medal in the 4 X 100 Relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Credit: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Strath Gordon, the head of communications at the Australian Olympic Committee, agrees.

"It's just not practical. The Olympic Games are a massive event and over recent Games, the International Olympic Committee has actually looked at reducing numbers to make it more manageable within the Olympic environment," Mr Gordon told The Feed.

"The Paralympic Games stand proudly independent as its own event."

The history of para-sport in the Commonwealth Games

Unlike the Paralympics, para-sport at the Commonwealth Games has never been staged as a separate event.

Events for athletes with disability were first included in the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, but only as exhibition events (not counted toward team medal tallies) in athletics and lawn bowls.

The 2002 Games in Manchester marked a huge step forward — athletes competed with their national teams and their winning results counted in their team's medal tallies.

That year, twenty countries sent para-athletes to compete in five different sports — athletics, lawn bowls, swimming, table tennis and weightlifting.

Since then, the program has grown at each Games. Birmingham added wheelchair basketball and triathlon to the mix this year, taking it to eight para-sports. But is still more limited than the most recent Paralympic Games in Tokyo which had 22 sports.

Dilute the message and stunt the growth

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which were held in 2021 due to the pandemic, is believed to have broken viewing records with an estimated cumulative global TV audience of 4.25 billion people.

While the interest has shot up for para-sport, and the integration at the Commonwealth Games has been praised for increasing the profile of para-athletes, the International Paralympic Committee said last Sunday a merger with the Olympics could jeopardise this growth.

Dylan Alcott reacts after winning Gold in the Men’s Singles Wheelchair Tennis match during the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021. Credit: JEFF CROW/PR IMAGE

International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence told the BBC the current deal with the International Olympic Committee "serves us well".

The 2018 deal specifies that a city is to host both Games and runs until the 2032 Summer Games in Brisbane.

"Since 1988, we have seen exponential growth in Paralympic sport," said Mr Spence.

"We are on a strong ascendancy and growing the Games, so combining both events would potentially stunt and jeopardise that growth, and we could potentially go backwards.

"This is a conversation that crops up regularly, but you have to look to see if it makes sense to bring both Games together and at the moment we believe it doesn't."

Two different events, two different histories

Tim Mannion, the general manager of communications at Paralympics Australia, agrees it's possible combining the events could stifle this growth.

"They’re two very different events with two different histories and they represent two different movements," said Mr Mannion.

"Paralympic athletes, the very best athletes with a disability in the world, get to showcase their sports and their movement to a global audience. And I think the power movement may be diluted if they do so at the same time."

CEO of Disability Sports Australia, Murray Elbourn, told The Feed it was great to see para-sport integrated with mainstream sports in the Commonwealth Games and prove that it can be cohesive. But the Paralympics and Olympics are not the events for it.

Thomas Guthrie (left) and Thomas Wann of the British basketball team,training for the 7th International Stoke Mandeville Games. The event later became what we know to be the Paralympic Games. Credit: Fred Morley/Getty Images

“It's that community perception of integration, which sometimes we battle in the disability space of having mainstream understand, from a disability perspective, why it's important to have a secular event," Mr Elbourn said.

While the community are largely on the same page that the events should not merge and are not in a place to merge, both Stewart and Mr Elbourn agree it's something that should keep being revisited.

Nonetheless, Stewart said it's a sentiment that should prevail in other arenas.

"At national games, university games, school games, bringing everybody together often works really well."