Whistler – With widespread publicity and a welcoming atmosphere, Beijing has done a wonderful job hosting the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games, and unprecedented early excitement is building around the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games and host communities, according to Whistler’s Brad Lennea and Chelsey Walker.
Walker and Lennea returned Friday (Sept. 12) from their trip to Beijing, where outgoing national para-alpine ski team member Lennea was one of two corridor representatives in the Paralympic torch relay and Walker, executive director of the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program (WASP), led a discussion in the B.C.-Canada Pavilion about adaptive sport programs and the creation of opportunities.
Walker’s presentation formed part of the Harmony Project, a two-day conference about adaptive sport and accessible tourism organized by the Whistler Forum, in which Lennea and the Resort Municipality of Whistler also participated.
Fresh back from Beijing, both Lennea and Walker were full of compliments for the welcoming embrace shown by the Chinese and the widespread publicizing and awareness of the Paralympics evident throughout their trip.
Attendance at the Paralympic events was high, Walker said, because the cost of tickets was so reasonable that ordinary Chinese citizens could easily afford to attend and enjoy exposure to the Paralympic sports and the impressive stadiums.
“They had almost full capacity everywhere we went,” she said.
Most of the tickets for Beijing Paralympic events cost between 30 and 80 yuan, or between $4 and $12 Cdn. According to an Aug. 28 press release from the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, 85 per cent of the 2010 Paralympic tickets will be priced at $20 or less.
Well into the evenings, excitement was evident and people were buzzing around the stadiums, Lennea added.
“(The tickets were) more accessible and affordable, so people can get in, and then that exposes them to para-sport,” he said.
Walker said the ticket scheme planned for the 2010 Games is comparable to Beijing’s, so she expects the Paralympic popularity to continue here.
“I anticipate, especially if we can replicate some of the exposure the Chinese have had around Paralympic sport, that… people will be really excited,” Walker said.
Beijing organizers and citizens took great notice of the Paralympians, Lennea and Walker said, with VIP elevators, lines and lanes for Paralympians, and Beijing businesses keen to do what they could to improve their accessibility. Lennea said the torchbearers were also welcomed warmly and attracted a lot of attention.
“(We were) very well received. And not only just during the torch relay or in the venues, but any time we went anywhere in the city,” he said.
“I felt like I was travelling with two rock stars, travelling with (Squamish torchbearer) Sarah (Tipler) and Brad,” Walker said, laughing.
The attention was sort of odd at first, Lennea said. Chinese people aren’t used to seeing someone in a manual wheelchair pushing himself around, he said, so people were impressed and surprised to see him wheeling himself around the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China.
“It was a little overwhelming, because… I’m used to people asking me if I want their help, not just automatically coming up to start pushing, or automatically taking it upon themselves to take care of me,” Lennea said. “I got used to it by the end.”
It will be interesting to see if the attention to para-sport lasts in China, Walker said, but the Chinese para-sport program already made huge strides in the mere seven years leading up to this year’s Games.
Overall, the size and scope of Beijing and the Games experience were amazing, and the trip was full of fun, Walker and Lennea said. The torch relay was Lennea’s favourite part, he said, though something major happened every day.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘Holy cow — out of everyone in the world right now, I’m holding the Paralympic flame,’” he said.
Walker and Lennea said lessons Whistler and Vancouver organizers can glean from the Beijing Paralympics centred around the widespread publicity efforts and the importance of having easily available accessible transportation and consistent adherence to universal design principles.
While the 2010 Games can’t match Beijing’s spending on marketing, which saw Paralympic logos and banners spread throughout the city, local organizers can accomplish the same effect by subtler means, Walker said, such as making sure Paralympic athletes or logos are used alongside Olympic ones every time.
“That way, it’s just automatically integrated, so we don’t have to worry about spending money on huge banners or flags when everywhere you look, it’s just an automatic message that it’s integrated,” she said.
Publicizing para-sport before and during the 2010 Games can have a global impact, Walker said, and she thinks the message is already being disseminated in Whistler for the 2.5 million visitors who come here annually.
Transportation must also be made easily available for the 2010 Paralympics, Lennea said. It was a struggle to get taxis at all sometimes in Beijing, never mind wheelchair-accessible taxis, he said.
“I could see that happening here quite easily,” he said, given the winter weather.
While some of the Beijing stadiums and facilities were well designed for universal access, Walker said, some of the accessible seating areas were poorly placed, and the Olympic Green, a large plaza in central Beijing, didn’t have an easy barrier-free route to the indoor stadium.
“We as a community can definitely take that lesson and apply it here to make sure everything we do is a universal design, so that everybody can access it,” Walker said.
Above all, the work by Whistler, B.C. and Canadian tourism representatives and Games organizers in Beijing shows how high the level of excitement surrounding the 2010 Paralympics already is, Walker said.
She said she got goosebumps “seeing all these different individuals working together, pulling together for 2010 already, a year and a half out — this has never happened before. Definitely, we’re setting a precedent here, working collaboratively so early.”
Very timely article.
The precedent of early collaborative work is certainly catching attention. Although my schedule didn't allow attending the Harmony Project my colleague from Waypoint Yacht Charter Services an I were up a few days later to meet with 2010 Legacies Now organizers and lay down plans for international cooperation on inclusive tourism around the Paralympic Games. The next visit will be with the Toronto group specializing in travel companions for travelers with disabilities to start a series of pre-game articles on the accessibility of travel to and tourism in BC.
Thanks for highlighting your precedent-setting work on planning livable inclusive communities. the story needs to get out.
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September 19, 2008 @ 10:45 am PST