The IPC’s preferred partners to assist with the transfer of governance and the creation of independent bodies for a variety of para sports have been announced. UK Sport and the British Paralympic Association will join forces with the international association to help co-ordinate the way sport is run for disabled people. They will mainly team up to help in the fields of para athletics and para swimming to help create more avenues in which disabled people can enter the sporting world and help them to achieve their potential.
The announcement comes following a very detailed process which began in July 2021. This took place when the IPC was looking for interested parties in relation to who would run both sports in their territories. After a long and lengthy search, they received twelve expressions of interest. These were put forward to an extremely comprehensive process where by the governing body looked at all the different merits each party had, before settling on appointing the two eventual preferred partners.
The different associations will now engage in a period of detailed negotiations until the end of August with the aim of establishing two independent and stand-alone international Para sport federations based in the United Kingdom. The IPC will then stop governing these two sports at the end of December 2026 with the hope that they will become fully independently run and be able to attract their own support and funding.
Each sport will have it’s own legal and governance structure but both will have shared operational resources to maximise economies of scale. The UK based organisations will assist in the transition of the two organisations to Manchester. The two sports however will still remain independent bodies who will look to have their own set of rules in place to help them run as smoothly as possible.
Andrew Parsons, IPC President, said:
“We are extremely grateful and excited to begin exclusive discussions with UK Sport and the BPA regarding the transfer of governance of the sports of Para athletics and Para swimming. As part of the IPC’s new constitution which was overwhelmingly approved by IPC members in December 2021, the IPC committed to cease acting as the international federation for the World Para Sports within five years. In 2022, the four Para snow sports transferred to FIS and IBU and now, after a careful process, we believe we are in a strong position to further engage with UK Sport and BPA regarding two further sports. Our objective in transferring the governance of the World Para Sports is for them to continue to thrive after becoming independent. We look forward to announcing the next steps in this process in the near future and welcome the support from World Athletics and World Aquatics.”
Dame Katherine Grainger, Chair of UK Sport, said:
“UK Sport is delighted that the UK’s proposal has been chosen as the preferred partner by the International Paralympic Committee. The establishment of independent and stand-alone international Para sport federations represents an exciting period of transition and development for Para athletics and Para swimming. A new home in Manchester is a huge vote of confidence for the city which is becoming a real hub for Para sport, and we are very pleased that these new federations will be based here in the UK.”
It is hoped that the partnership between the different organisations will be able to add more strength to the development of new sports and create more opportunities for disabled people. This will help add more equality to the sporting arena and enable more people to take part and achieve their full potential.
