Where are the UK’s Paralympic gold hotspots?

Michael McKillop’s race to his second gold medal and the esteemed title of the world’s greatest Paralympic middle-distance runner, was the moment when commentators woke up to Team Ireland‘s Paralympic success.

Irish Paralympians won eight golds, taking them to 19th place in the medal table. Not bad for an island of 6.4 million people, and a much better performance than the country’s one gold at this year’s Olympic Games.

But more surprising is the fact that five of Ireland’s eight medals were won by athletes from the north of Ireland – athletes who can chose either British or Irish citizenship, and therefore can represent Ireland or Great Britain – as well as a bronze from cyclist James Brown. That’s 2.7 golds for every million people living there.

Golden regions

Among regions in the UK, only London with nine golds, and the south west, with six, can boast more medals. However, not so impressive considering population: 1.2 golds for every million living in London, and 1.1 gold for every million in the south west.

Wales traditionally has a strong history in Paralympic sport: at the Beijing Games, Welsh athletes made up 16 per cent of Team GB but were responsible for 25 per cent of its gold medals.

A staggering four of the of the Welsh gold medals were down to swimmer David Roberts, who has 11 Paralympic golds under his belt. But he failed to qualify for this year’s Games, which had a big impact on the Welsh medal haul.

Athletes from Yorkshire secured an impressive medal haul for TeamGB at the Olympic Games. At the Paralympics, wheelchair racer Hannah Cockroft from Halifax and Danielle Brown, who won Britain’s only gold in archery, put in an impressive performance for the region, which will take home three Paralympic golds.

Luck of the Irish?

Eight athletes from Northern Ireland competed at this year’s Paralympics: six for Team Ireland and two for ParalympicsGB. The British squad will no doubt be aware that they would have beaten Russia to second place in the medals table if they had sprinter Jason Smyth, swimmer Bethany Firth and runner Michael McKillop [pictured] on their team.

Athletes’ political persuasion will most likely determine their team. But Peter McCabe, athletes services manager at the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland (SINI) says that the decision can also be a practical one.

“Generally what happens when the talent emerges is that the system that spots it first is more likely to support it and develop it,” he told Channel 4 News.

“If they go into English university system, like the rowers who ended up medalling for Britain [Peter and Richard Chambers] it suits them to go through the British system. It can depend on which system spots the talent earliest and makes the most of it.”

Significant change

So what is the secret of the area’s Paralympic success? Kevin O’Neill, director of Disability Sport NI, told Channel 4 News that the medal haul is a sign of significant change in the area.

“When we launched Disability Sport NI back in 1998, no athletes with disabilities received lottery funding, support wasn’t available from SINI or the Irish sports institute. There was very few opportunities for participation, let alone competition.”

Michael McKillop may be the Paralympics world middle distance champion, and the recipient of a special award from the IPC, but his father and coach, Paddy, says his potential was not always apparent.

“He was quite small and weedy from first to fourth year of secondary school, as a result of CP,” Mr McKillop told Channel 4 News. “He would’ve trained with the boys, but younger boys would’ve been ahead of him. He enjoyed being part of the running family though and the banter.”

Sheer determination – and a strong competitive streak – won through in the end however. “He had a good gene pool though, with me and his mum being athletes, and he made up for the disability with his hard work and competitiveness,” says Mr McKillop.

At an elite level at least, much of that has changed. The vast majority Paralympic athletes now receive funding from Sport NI or Irish Sport Council at the same level as for Olympians, and all who competed in the Games are managed by mainstream sports organisations.

According to SINI, there is also a wider range of disability sport – not just the more traditional athletics, but also elite swimming, and athletes who compete at the winter Paralyampics.

“Athletes like Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop always existed, but weren’t always aware of the opportunities available,” says Mr O’Neill. “Now it’s seen as a very credible area of sport.”

Limited opportunities

Smyth is partially sighted and McKillop was born with cerebral palsy. But both push themselves to compete in able-bodied as well as disabled competitions. This is mainly because there are so few opportunities to compete in disability sport, says McKillop’s father and coach, Paddy.

“There’s a great profile on disability sport when you get to a world championship like the Paralympics, but these are only every four years,” he told Channel 4 News. “The opportunities to compete internationally, and even nationally, are very limited.”

While elite sport has reached peaked at this year’s Games, the same is not true in the mainstream. Only 10 to 15 per cent of disabled people in Northern Ireland are physically active, and both Mr O’Neill and Mr McKillop believe the government needs to do more to be invest in grassroots disability sport.

For now though, the hope is that success at the Paralympics will filter through to the rest of society. “The delight for us is that it creates a whole series of new role models,” says Mr O’Neill. “Ireland and respectively Northern Ireland are now well up there in terms of elite disability sport – it’s way beyond even what could’ve been dreamt off.”