IPC reject DSISO's plea to be recognized

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from Down Syndrome International Swimming Organization:

Link to copy of the below letter from International Paralympic Committee to DSISO outlining why people with Down Syndrome are not allowed to officially compete in the Paralympic games.

28 April 2008 PV/IPC

Swimming for Individuals with Down Syndrome

Dear Geoff,

In reference to your email dated 15 February to Sabine Mikulas, and all previous communication on the interest of the Down Syndrome International Swimming Organisation (DSISO) to become a member of the Paralympic Movement, and after a further review of the facts you outlined, we have reached the following conclusions:

1. It is understood by both IPC and DSISO that not all persons with Down Syndrome (DS) meet the criteria for intellectual disability, but it is not all that common (e.g. translocation and mosacism). In the likelihood of occurrence, those particular athletes with DS (without associated intellectual disability) may fit under the current Functional Classification System of IPC Swimming on the condition they meet the requirements for locomotor disability in accordance with IPC Swimming rules and regulations (IPC Swimming Classification Manual, Section 1 – Swimming Classification). There is no need for those athletes to be recognized as a separate disability group within the IPC. The comparison made to athletes with visual impairment or cerebral palsy that happen to have an intellectual disability does not stand, as both impairments are qualified as physical impairments (which is not the case for Down Syndrome).
2. Trisomy 21, the most common form of DS, almost exclusively manifests itself with an associated intellectual disability. Within this perspective, according to the IPC Constitution Article 4.1.2, the IPC can only recognize one organization as the sole representative of a specific disability group. In the case of athletes with an intellectual disability the IPC Member is currently INAS-FID. Swimmers with an intellectual disability, including Down Syndrome swimmers with associated ID, have to meet the eligibility criteria of the respective International Federation (INAS-FID). On the basis of these conclusions, the proposal of DSISO to apply for IPC Membership is no longer considered by the IPC.

Kind regards,

Xavier Gonzalez

Chief Executive Officer

International Paralympic Committee

cc Tim Reddish, Chairperson IPC Swimming

     Sir Philip Craven, IPC President

Marathon runner with Down's syndrome carries Paralympic torch in West Hendon

By Emma Innes from Times Series:
The Paralympic torch was carried by five torchbearers as it passed through West Hendon this morning.
The torchbearers included Simon Beresford, 44, from Lichfield.
Mr Beresford was the first person with Down’s syndrome to run the London Marathon.
He has now run eight marathons raising more than £20,000 for the Down’s Syndrome Association.
Mr Beresford was accompanied by Sara Clarke, also 44, who has spent the last 20 years working at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
The torch travelled 92 miles from Stoke Mandeville, the home of the Paralympics, to the Olympic Park during a 24 hour period.

Tom’s Paralympic dream is shattered

from Haverhill Echo:

The mother of Haverhill-trained swimming sensation Tom Cole has branded the classification system that will see him unable to compete at the Paralympics next year as “discriminating” against Down’s Syndrome.

Double World gold medallist Cole, 22, will be denied the once-in-a-lifetime chance to line-up in the Games in his home country due to a system which puts people with Down’s Syndrome into competition with people without any physical disabilities.

Cole, who holds six European Down’s Syndrome swimming records, alongside his two World Downs Championship gold medals, will be left to watch the drama unfolding on television next summer wondering ‘what if’.

The current system used by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) would only allow Cole to compete in an S14 category which covers learning disabilities with an IQ under 75.

But this does not take into account common Down’s Syndrome physical disabilities such as narrower windpipes and low muscle tone as well as restricted height.

Mrs Cole said: “We are gutted and every Down’s Syndrome swimmer in Great Britain feels the same.

“Physically there are things wrong as well as a low IQ and I cannot see how IQ would affect swimming.

“I do not know why the IPC do not recognise it when it is a disability you can diagnose before birth.”

Despite their family having launched a campaign for a change in the classification system and with MPs around the country having taken up the fight, nothing has worked with Mrs Cole claiming it is like hitting “a brick wall”.

Phil Ward, a West Suffolk Swimming coach who has worked with Cole, of Great Waldingfield, near Sudbury, at Haverhill Leisure Centre, labelled it “an uneven playing field”.

He said the fact Cole would come up against people much taller and healthier than himself, with far better muscle tone, meant he could not be capable of beating them in the pool.

A spokesman for the IPC said Down’s Syndrome athletes were a ‘very small group of people’ that it would not be realistic for them to cater for with their own classification.

He said classification had to be done by primary impairment, which, in the case of Down’s Syndrome, was deemed to be intellectual.

“We are driven by primary impairment and in the case of Downs it (physical) is a secondary impairment,” he said.