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Disabled advocates want council to resume events

Advocates for swimmers with disabilities yesterday pleaded with the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) to reinstate a number of races it had canceled ahead of this year's national games for people with disabilities, scheduled to be held in Hualien in June.

The national games for disabled athletes are held every two years.

Last year, the council decided to follow the regulations set by the International Paralympic Committee and cancel some of the swimming categories that are not official programs in the Special Olympics World Games. They include the level 6 (S6) to 10 (S10) in the 50m backstroke, breast stroke and butterfly categories.

Instead, the council kept the Level 1 (S1) to Level 5 (S5) in all three categories.

Swimmers competing from Level 1 to Level 5 in general only have 10 to 50 percent of their bodies that remain functional, whereas those competing in Level 6 to Level 10 have minor to medium physical or mental disabilities. The latter category usually attracts more participants than the former.

Huang Wen-sheng (黃文盛), a Chinese Taipei Special Olympic coach, said the last-minute policy change has compromised the interests of disabled athletes.

"The council keeps stressing that the measure was taken so that the quality of our national games could be in sync with that of international games." he said. "Then why didn't they do the same thing with the games held before 2006?"

Huang also questioned the qualifications of members serving on the preparatory board for the games.

"I wonder how many of them [the board members] have actually trained any swimmer having the capacity to compete in the international games," he said.

Parents of the disabled swimmers also attended a press conference yesterday. They said it took them a long time to train and encourage their children to come forward and join the game. What the council had done was actually depriving their children of an opportunity to demonstrate their gifts and build up their self-esteem, they added.

Chou Kuo-chin (周國金), chief of the SAC's physical fitness and sports section, said the national games for people with disabilities is considered an extremely important event by the council, from which it could select athletes to represent Taiwan in the Special Olympics.
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