08-08-2022, 04:46 PM
:paralympics: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/commonwealth-games/62447608 
The International Paralympic Committee says Paralympic growth could be "jeopardised" if the Games was to be merged with the Olympics.
The Para-sport programme at the 2022 Commonwealth Games has been a big success and led to calls for greater integration.
But while the sports and athletes involved in Birmingham have benefited from the increased profile, IPC spokesman Craig Spence told the BBC's Access All podcast that the current agreement for separate Olympics and Paralympics "serves us well".
The current deal for the same city to host both Games was signed in 2018 and runs until the 2032 Games in Brisbane.
Yeah, I don't think this would work. The Paralympics always award more medals in total than the Olympics, because they have to account for not only every sport, but every disability category (for example, at Tokyo 2020, there were 340 Olympic golds and 539 Paralympic golds). If these were to be merged, then how would the medal table work? I can see four realistic options:
So, would there be a way to make this work or not?
The International Paralympic Committee says Paralympic growth could be "jeopardised" if the Games was to be merged with the Olympics.
The Para-sport programme at the 2022 Commonwealth Games has been a big success and led to calls for greater integration.
But while the sports and athletes involved in Birmingham have benefited from the increased profile, IPC spokesman Craig Spence told the BBC's Access All podcast that the current agreement for separate Olympics and Paralympics "serves us well".
The current deal for the same city to host both Games was signed in 2018 and runs until the 2032 Games in Brisbane.
Yeah, I don't think this would work. The Paralympics always award more medals in total than the Olympics, because they have to account for not only every sport, but every disability category (for example, at Tokyo 2020, there were 340 Olympic golds and 539 Paralympic golds). If these were to be merged, then how would the medal table work? I can see four realistic options:
- Cut the number of Paralympics events (which harms disability sport as a whole);
- Keep all existing events, and have a combined medal table for both (in which case, the medal table ends up being dominated by the Paralympics - which, with all due respect to disability athletes, comes off as the tail wagging the dog);
- Keep all existing events, but have separate medal tables (in which case it's not a proper merger);
- Keep all existing events and have a combined medal table, but with Olympic golds counting for more than Paralympic golds (which would be complicated, and would go completely against the IOC's and IPC's messaging about the Paralympics being equal to the Olympics, and not an afterthought).
So, would there be a way to make this work or not?