22/03/2025
WHO IS BUILDING THE CLUBS?
A great deal has been written recently about the injection of $54.9M by the Australian Sports Commission into High Performance Para-Sport over the next 2 years. Following Australia's lowest Paralympic ranking since 1988 at the Paris 2024 Games, this is good news, and provides the resources to make changes.
The question is, what do we want to achieve and how do we get there?
7 years out from an Australian Paralympic Games, we have an opportunity to invest in a Para-Sports system that produces excellent results in Brisbane 2032. Equally importantly, we can create thriving, sustainable pathways for people with disabilities to participate in sport, with all the physical health, mental health and social benefits that provides.
Indeed, it is only when we create a robust base to the participation pyramid, that we can expect to produce High Performance athletes at the top.
The bedrock of any successful sporting system is a thriving Club network. An analysis of sports across Australia where our country has success on the world stage shows how crucial Clubs are to a flourishing sport. Whether it's Cricket, Swimming, Tennis, Basketball or Football, High Performance success relies on the Clubs finding and nurturing talented athletes, often many years in advance.
So who is building the Clubs in Australia that will grow the base of participation in Para-Sports?
Some will advocate for mainstream sporting Clubs to be trained to better serve people living with disabilities. This is a worthwhile goal, and should always be encouraged for the disability sports that have a mainstream partner organisation.
Others will promote one-off 'Come and Try' days in Para-Sport to find talented athletes. These can be good, but where do people go to learn their sport once they're interested?
Independent Disability Sports Clubs run by State Sporting Organisations for people with disabilities (SSODs) have been the cornerstone of Paralympic success for Australia dating back to 1960. The reasons these Clubs are so important to the whole system are:
1) Disability Sports Clubs run by SSODs have 100% of their focus on people with disabilities
2) Disability Sports Clubs understand how to recruit people with disabilities into sport, working alongside the Allied Health space and other unique channels to grow participation
3) Disability Sports Clubs ensure people with disabilities have self-direction for how they want to play sport. Agency is codified into the system.
4) People with disabilities are welcomed into Disability Sports Clubs by experts with a deep understanding of their impairments, their potential Classification and their equipment needs
5) Given the Shared Service model of most SSODs (i.e. managing multiple disability sports), the expertise exists to transfer people with disabilities between sports depending on their impairment and interests
6) People with disabilities begin their sporting experience surrounded by others with disabilities, finding a place to belong and making friends in a welcoming, safe environment.
As always, people with disabilities deserve choice in where they want to play sport. Whilst there are many people in Australian Sport talking about the value of 'integration' of people with disabilities into mainstream sport, let us also ensure we invest into the Disability Sports Clubs across Australia, lest we remove that choice.
At Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT, we now have a record 37 Disability Sports Clubs across Wheelchair AFL, Wheelchair Basketball, Wheelchair Rugby, Wheelchair Tennis and Wheelchair Track & Road. These Clubs are where many Paralympians of yesteryear still participate, and the Paralympians of the future are just getting started.
These Clubs are also where skills are built, and lifelong friendships are made.
In summary, it’s a good thing there is investment in Institutes, National Sporting organisations and High Performance environments to achieve success in Australian Para-Sport. Let us also consider the crucial role in the system of the Disability Sports Clubs across Australia, and their State Sporting Organisations for people with disabilities.
Before you can have success at the top, you have to build the base.
Mick Garnett
CEO
