IRISH TEAM MEDIA GUIDE RIO PARALYMPIC GAMES #MORETHANSPORT 2016 PAGE // 2 IRISH TEAM MEDIA GUIDE 2016 IRISH TEAM MEDIA GUIDE RIO PARALYMPIC GAMES Table of Contents The Road to Rio // 04 Paralympics Explained // 06 Irish Paralympic History // 08 What’s new for Rio 2016 // 10 Where to go -Paralympic Venues //12 Irish team fast facts // 14 Meet the Chef -Denis Toomy //16 Meet Team Ireland // 18 Paralympics Ireland Media Services // 64 Brazilian words and phrases // 66 Tweet tweet // 70 Glossary Of terms // 71 Competition Schedule // 72 THE ROAD TO RIO PAGE // 4 IRISH TEAM MEDIA GUIDE 2016 s the Irish Team marches into the Maracana the necessary support in order to ensure optimum A Stadium for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games performance at the Games. Working from a qua- Opening Ceremony on September 7th, it will be the drennial Performance Plan which was laid down in final step of a long and hard-fought journey. For the the aftermath of London 2012, Toomey and Malone 46 Irish athletes, this journey hasn’t always been an have worked hand in hand to support the staff and easy one. It has been one that has been filled with sports science and medical team to help these ath- highs and lows, ups and downs, disappointments letes reach key performance. and successes, but inevitably, one that has brought As a result, 2015 was a key year in the calen- them to the pinnacle of their sporting career and dar for Irish athletes, with World Championships now sees them on the greatest of all sporting stages. in a number of sporting disciplines. As support to The Opening Ceremony will mark a major individual sports, Paralympics Ireland also provided milestone in these athletes’ lives. For many, it will bespoke training and information sessions with be their first taste of a Paralympic Games and will multi-sport camps and conferences. Irish athletes undoubtedly be a memory they will savour and relish continued to make their mark on the world stage, for years to come. For others, it is another stepping with Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop both claim- stone on the pathway of their careers, the end point ing World Championship gold medals, while new- of years and years of hard work. With that marker comer Noelle Lenihan made her mark on the athlet- comes hope, determination and an overwhelming ics scene on her debut in Doha where she won silver desire to do themselves, their families, their town and set a new World Record. Swimmer Ellen Keane and country proud. For them, it is the next chapter in secured a World Championship bronze medal, while their story – a story founded in dedication, sacrifice, para cyclist Eoghan Clifford and team mates Katie- commitment, passion and pride. A story that stems George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal also continued from the belief that “I can” and “I will”. A story that to win numerous medals on the Para Cycling World breaks down obstacles, breaks down boundaries and Cup scene. Athletes Niamh McCarthy and Deirdre sees only one possible ending – success - in whatever Mongan will also be making their Paralympic Games shape that may be. For these athletes, it is more than debut, while table tennis player Rena McCarron sport. It’s more than years of training, years of hard Rooney will be returning for her second Paralympic work, years of an unwavering self-belief. Everyone Games appearance. who tunes in to watch this year’s Games will be privy With logistics for Rio set to be a lot more trying to this something more, this something special. than that of London four years ago, plans were From a Paralympics Ireland perspective, the quickly put in place to shape and organize the 2016 planning and preparation to deliver the best-pre- Pre-Games Holding Camp in Uberlandia, Brazil, with pared team for Rio began many years ago. The first the support of Sport Ireland. Following a summer milestone on this journey was the appointment of of intensive research and preparation, a number Denis Toomey as Chef de Mission of the Irish Team of athletes and staff travelled to Uberlandia to the in 2014. Toomey was joined by the new Performance Pre-Games Base Familiarisation Camp to experience Director of Paralympics Ireland Dave Malone in 2015 first-hand the climate and training conditions that and together, they have set about implementing and they would face exactly one year later in 2016. managing a successful qualification process for the Irish team, while ring-fencing the athletes with all of PARALYMICS IRELAND PAGE // 5 PARALYMPICS EXPLAINED he first Paralympic Games for athletes with a by just 5,000 people. T physical disability took place in Rome in 1960 Sixteen years later the Paralympics had its first but the genesis of the idea came from Britain’s Stoke Winter Games while its summer version, in Toronto, Mandeville hospital which, since 1948, had run inter- had swelled to 13 sports, over 1,500 athletes and 40 national Games to encourage its patients to return countries. That was also the first time that amputees to sport as part of their rehab. and visually impaired athletes were included. Since Over half a century ago, those first Paralympic then, the Paralympic movement has grown dramat- Games featured just eight sports, 400 athletes and ically. 23 countries and the closing ceremony was attended Fast forward to London 2012, and a record 2.7 PAGE // 6 IRISH TEAM MEDIA GUIDE 2016 million tickets were sold for a Summer Paralympic preposition ‘para’ (beside or alongside). It underlines Games which involved 4,237 athletes from 164 coun- that Paralympics are the parallel Games to the Olym- tries in 20 sports. pics and illustrates how the two movements exist The Paralympics has grown to become an elite side-by-side. multi-sport event for athletes with physical and The Paralympic Games have always been held sensory disability that can match any in world sport in the same year as the Olympic Games. Since the with its feats of skill, courage and drama. Seoul Summer Paralympics (1988), and the Albert- Athletes compete in various classes of compe- ville Winter Paralympic Games (1992), they have tition and are classified according to their disability, also taken place at the same venues as the Olympic but it is their athleticism, not their disability, that is Games. In 2001, an agreement was signed between showcased. the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and the Classification is simply a structure for compe- IPC (International Paralympic Committee) securing tition. Not unlike wrestling, boxing or weightlifting this practice for the future. where athletes are categorised by weight, elite ath- In London 2012 the Games were broadcast to letes with disabilities are grouped in classes defined over 100 countries and territories and attracted a by the degree of function presented by their impair- cumulative television audience of 3.8 billion world- ment. wide. Channel 4 screened over 150 hours of live The Paralympic movement groups athletes into coverage and 11.2 million watched the opening cer- six different classes: amputee, Cerebral Palsy, visual emony, the channel’s biggest single audience in a impairment, spinal cord injuries, intellectual impair- decade. 2012 was also the first ‘social media’ Games ment and a group which includes all those that do with over 1.3 million tweets mentioning ‘Paralym- not fit into the aforementioned groups (les autres). pic’, 25 million visited London 2012.com and over There are further sub-classes within these 5.8 million downloaded or installed the London groups defined by each sport. These are determined Paralympic App. These Games stood out even more by a variety of processes (classification) that may from an Irish perspective as Ireland’s Michael McK- include a physical and technical assessment, and illop – alongside Kenya’s Mary Nakhumicha Zakayo observation in and out of competition. - was given the Whang Youn Dai award for the ath- Classification is an on-going process. When an letes who best exemplified the spirit of the greatest athlete starts competing, they are allocated a class Paralympic Games to date. that may be reviewed regularly throughout their Rio 2016, which will feature over 4,000 athletes career. from more than 150 countries on September 7th to Since the London 2012 Paralympics, for 18th, is set to be an even greater talent showcase example, Ireland’s sprint superstar Jason Smyth has of the world’s greatest Paralympic athletes. Such is been re-classified twice, first to the T12 class and the public interest and appreciation for them now then back to T13. His return to T13 last winter means that Irish broadcaster RTÉ will be providing daily he will only defend one of his Paralympic titles in coverage of the Games across all of their platforms Rio because the T13 200m event is no longer on the while Channel 4 has further increased its coverage programme. for what promises to be a spectacular and thrilling The word ‘Paralympic’ derives from the Greek 15th Summer Paralympic Games. PARALYMICS IRELAND PAGE // 7 IRISH PARALYMPIC HISTORY PAGE // 8 IRISH TEAM MEDIA GUIDE 2016 reland has a proud tradition at the Paralympic Paralympic athletes are supported and funded I Games but rarely has it had one single day as through Sport Ireland’s elite support systems, which great as September 1, 2012. included €1.28m in grants in 2016, plus all the ser- In what was the Irish equivalent of Britain’s vices available at the Institute of Sport. ‘Super Saturday’ at the London Olympics, the 2012 Paralympics Ireland’s constituent members Paralympics started with gold medals for Ireland’s includes two disability specific multi-sport organ- Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop on the track isations (Irish Wheelchair Association Sport and and a third gold from Wexford swimmer Darragh Vision Sport Ireland), plus a wide number of national McDonald.