A successful competition was considered vital if athletes with an intellectual [learning] disability are to be allowed back into the Paralympic field. They were banned after the majority of the gold winning Spanish basketball squad at the 2000 Sydney games were found not to have an intellectual disability and doubts were cast on other athlete’s participation rights.

Since then the International Paralympic Committee [IPC] Games has been working with INAS-FID on finding a solution to prevent further cheating and is expected to make a decision on whether athletes with an intellectual disability may be included alongside athletes with physical disabilities in the London 2012 Paralympic Games in November.

One of the people competing in Prague was 17-year-old James Simpson from Ulverston, Cumbria. It’s the birthplace of comic actor Stan Laurel but the youngster won’t be laughing if the IPC refuse to allow him to compete at the 2012 Games as he “is desperate to compete in London in order to help achieve my main goal from athletics which is to win an Olympic medal for team GB and myself.”

James who attends the Sandside Lodge School for pupils with special needs was spotted by Barrow and Furness Striders and Great Britain INAS-FID coach Paul Burns about two years ago during an athletics session at the Hoops Basketball centre.

James recently won bronze medals in both the 100m and 200m sprint events at the Mencap Sports National Championships.

Before he set off for Prague he said: “I am delighted to be able to compete at the Global Games. I didn't think I was that good really. I aim to do my best for my country but also try to learn from this experience so that it might help me in the years ahead. Athletics, like the many other sports I enjoy keeps me fit. It has improved my confidence and I have also made nnew friends from all over the country. My successes have made me a bit of a hero at school - which is nice,” said James.

In the event James did well, recording two personal bests of 11.84 and 24.50 seconds in the 100 and 200 metres respectively that in the case of the latter helped him get through to the semi-finals. He is now hoping to further improve on his performances during the rest of the athletics season. Amongst the British Gold medal winners were sprinters Allan Stuart (Glasgow) and Monique Davis (Croydon), together with swimmers Dan Pepper (Poynton) and Craig Moate (Barking).

James Simpson’s mother Nicky believes her son has “gained by learning to be part of a team, how to be competitive and how to be a good loser. Sport is also teaching him to be more independent especially when he travels to different parts of the world where he meets new friends that are like him - driven by sport!

What’s especially helped him is that his school encourages youngsters to get involved with out of school sport activities and sends letters home regarding the facilities that are open to them. I don’t believe disabled children elsewhere are so lucky.”

The body charged with developing sport for the 11 million disabled people in England is the English Federation of Disability Sport [EFDS], which brings together the eight National Disability Sport Organisations, such as British Blind Sport, recognised by Sport England.

Marie Dixon has recently been appointed Regional Development Manager for EFDS in the North West. She admits “opportunities vary widely across the region. Surveys show that the lack of a suitable club or facility is rated by disabled people as the second main barrier to them participating in sport, in front of transport and a lack of money. Number one is a lack of information, people being unable to discover what facilities there are and how to access them.”

According to Dixon the EFDS and Regional County Sports Partnerships such as the Cheshire Sports Trust have consequently all boosted their presence on the internet - so for example anyone accessing the EFDS North West site can immediately find out who to contact and where to go to play football.

PARASPORT, a joint initiative between the British Paralympic Association and Deloitte, are also working on a national sports club facilities directory due out early next year.

All well and good - but statistics show that levels of sporting participation amongst disabled adults are roughly 2/3rds that of the non-disabled. Why is this the case?

According to Dixon this is because: “There are not enough sports facilities accessible to disabled people although improvements have followed the introduction of legislation in 2004 making it compulsory for clubs to make reasonable adjustments to their premises so that disabled people can use their facilities. SPORT ENGLAND has provided many clubs with grants to fund improvements such as at Bolton Lads and Girls Club where £4 million was spent resulting in a general rise in its use, including a 42% increase in the number of disabled users for the multi-sports organised there.

The Inclusive Fitness Initiative [IFI] has proven successful. We are also establishing an advocacy and activity buddies scheme which we think will boost sporting participation amongst disabled people as newcomers will be provided with volunteer support from already qualified sports coaches. There’s also Playground to Podium. ”

IFI was the brainchild of Gary Jelen, MBE, an international powerlifter who found that his learning difficulty initially made it difficult to find a training venue. Established in 1998 IFI’s aims are to develop accessible and inclusive environments containing equipment accessible by disabled people in which staff are trained to cater for disabled peoples needs. IFI are hoping to have launched 1000 inclusive fitness facilities across the UK by 2012. At present there are 26 northwest sites and 24 in Yorkshire including Thrybergh Sports Centre in Rotherham.

Under Playground to Podium the plan is to identify and develop disabled players and athletes such that they can compete at the 2012 Paralympics. The aim is to train over 3 ½ thousand teachers able to recognise ability in young disabled people in order to provide 22,500 children per year with high quality training by 2012. The Government believes that Paralympics success will inspire other disabled people to take up sport.

“There’s no doubt the 2012 Paralympic Games will be vital to the future of sport amongst disabled people. If we can’t increase the numbers involved it will be difficult to get the government to maintain funding to improve facilities.

More public money than ever before has been allocated to Sport because of 2012. Areas who’ve experienced funding cuts such as the Arts are not going to take kindly to this continuing if we can’t show there have been increased levels of sporting participation everywhere, including amongst disabled people. We have some way to go yet to ensure that’s the case,” said Dixon.

Meanwhile for those athletes who competed in Prague they await with interest the result of the IPC meeting in Kuala Lumpur in November where all of the nations participating in the Paralympic games will vote on whether athletes with intellectual disability will be in London 2012

Bob Price is the INAS-FID (the International Federation for sport for athletes with an intellectual disability) President, and when he was appointed two years ago he persuaded the IPC to establish a joint working party to identify what would satisfy both sides so that the re-inclusion of athletes with intellectual disability in future Paralympic games could be achieved

He is hopeful this can be achieved for most sports by 2012 saying when interviewed recently that “There has always been a need to decide when a disability is so insignificant and minor that it no longer merits special provision. The bigger problem that faced INAS-FID after Sydney was what we can do to avoid deliberate cheating. The way in which IPC and INAS-FID have worked together during the last two years has been very sport focused, research driven. And we hope to identify an action plan, which if implemented by IPC and INAS-FID together should provide the opportunity for all of us to be more confident in our ability, first of all to identify genuine disability and then to relate that disability to the context of sport. The third is to introduce some sort of protest and appeal procedure to be conducted at games. We are very close to having those three things in place.

Clearly, I am optimistic, that if everything happens as we intend, athletes with intellectual disability will not miss London.”

All being well James Simpson and others may get their chance in London after all