Paralympians take aim at Australian government for lack of funding

Fed up with being treated like second-class citizens, Australia’s Paralympians have taken aim at governments and big businesses that keep ignoring their pleas for a fair go.

Fed up with being treated like second-class citizens, Australia’s champion Paralympians have taken aim at governments and big businesses that keep ignoring their pleas for a fair go while slamming the rose-coloured legacy of Sydney 2000 as an ongoing ‘injustice’.

Despite recently being voted the country’s most respected and trusted team, Australia’s Paralympians remain the most underfunded elite athletes in the land and they are sick of it so have called it our for what it is – discrimination.

The lack of funding to Paralympic sport is reflected in the team’s rapid slide down the medals table, with Australia finishing eighth at Tokyo in 2021 after placing first at Sydney in 2000.

But now, with Brisbane 2032 less than a decade away, Paralympics Australia (PA) has had enough – launching a bold new strategic plan which they hope will end years of discrimination against athletes with disabilities.

Leading the call to arms is Australia’s most inspired wounded soldier Curtis McGrath, who lost both his legs while serving in Afghanistan but is now a national sporting hero.

Australia’s Paralympians are calling for change. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

A gold medallist in paracanoeing at Rio in 2016 then also Tokyo, McGrath said it was time all Australians got behind the Paralympic team so they had a fair chance competing on the world stage.

“We don‘t want anyone to feel sorry for us,” he said.

“That‘s not the intent of the strategy. It’s about pointing out what we can do with more.”

In launching the new strategic plan, which was almost a year in the making, PA’s newly appointed chief executive Catherine Clarke also pulled no punches as she outlined the shocking disparity in funding between Australia’s able bodied and impaired athletes.

PA’s detailed strategic plan covers everything from funding to pathways to sustainability to fan engagement but also includes data that shows the shocking disparity in elite sports.

While Olympians receive 85% of the high-performance funding pie, Paralympians get just 15%, even though they win more medals.

For performance pathway programs, the Paralympic slice is even less – a pitiful 9% – compared to the 91% given to the Olympics.

Clarke said she was stunned at the way Paralympic athletes are treated after asking them for first-hand accounts.

“We heard countless stories of able-bodied athletes being funded but there wasn’t enough money for their para counterparts. Athletes, and sometimes coaches, who felt like an afterthought, or a second-class citizen,” she said.

“They receive less funding, less support, less media coverage, often less appearance fees.”

While the Australians still performed brilliantly in Tokyo – winning a total of 80 medals with a reduced team of 174 athletes, it was still a far cry from Sydney when the almost 300-strong Aussie contingent scooped up 149 medals.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 01: Paralympics Australia CEO Catherine Clarke outlined a huge disparity in funding between Australia’s able bodied and impaired athletes. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

It’s expected Australia will field a massive team in Brisbane but according to PA, the groundwork needs to be laid immediately.

Australians only filled 36% of the quota spots they had for Tokyo because they couldn‘t afford to send a bigger team and there are just 128 Paralympic athletes in emerging and developing programs for 2032 – compared with 1,764 in Olympic sports.

PA President Jock O’Callaghan said one in five Australians lives with a disability but only a quarter participate in sport because of inadequate facilities and reduced spending.

He also said the funding crisis stems back to Sydney 2000 when PA received just 1% of the $100 million given to the Australian Olympic Committee to safeguard the future of sport.

While the AOC was able to invest wisely and secure a long list of blue-chip sponsors, PA was left to live off scraps.

“To put things in perspective, (PA) felt justifiably proud of having staved off demands that Para-athletes pay for entry to compete in their own home games (at Sydney 2000), “ O‘Callaghan said.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 01: Paralympics Australia President Jock O’Callaghan said inadequate funding caused a lack of disabled people from participating in sports. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

As if that wasn’t bad enough, while Channel 9 just signed a monster deal to secure the broadcast rights for the next five Summer and Winter Olympics including Brisbane, there is still no signed broadcast deal for the next Paralympics in Paris – starting in 18 months.

PA is hopeful a broadcast deal for Paris will be secured soon while O’Callaghan said the fight for better treatment of Paralympians was only getting started.

“we cannot and will not shy from these difficult home truths. They needed to be put on the table,” he said. “And I can assure each and every one of you – they will continue to be called out.”

Paralympic wheelchair marathon gold medallist Madison de Rozario also joined in the plea for help, saying the success of the Paralympic would benefit all Australians who live with disabilities.

“The Paralympics has not just an opportunity here but a responsibility to shift that and to allow those voices to be the ones that shape the conversation,” she said. “We have such an enormous opportunity, such a great spotlight.”

Originally published as Paralympians take aim at Australian government for lack of funding