Athlete Advisory Group statement on Paris 2024 Event Programme proposals

The World Para Athletics Athlete Advisory Group (AAG) published on Tuesday (1 December) a statement about the Membership Consultation launched by World Para Athletics for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games medal event programme. 

The AAG statetement can be found below.

Dear Para athletes,

Recently World Para Athletics (WPA) sent a letter to your National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) and National Federation (NFs) to initiate a membership consultation process with proposed changes to the Para athletics event programme for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. The final event programme proposal will be submitted to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) early next year for approval. 

The WPA Athlete Advisory Group (AAG) want to inform the Para athlete community that we have been actively involved in this process from the beginning with the WPA management team and the Sport Technical Committee (STC) and are fully aware of the proposal put forward for consultation. We are also seriously discussing the proposal internally as a group. 

The AAG recognises the importance of a diverse Paralympic event programme, protecting opportunities for athletes with High Support Needs (HSN) and maintaining a fair gender balance. However, we also take the long history and strength of well-developed classes as well as the importance of strength and depth of competition at the Paralympic Games into consideration – getting this balance right is important for the future of our sport. 

The AAG is committed to ensuring that the decision-making process is fair and transparent and the Paralympic Games programme represents equal opportunity across the Para athlete community whilst maintaining a high quality of competition.  

For this reason, we encourage you to participate in the process and have your voices heard in the membership consultation. You should contact your respective National Paralympic Committee directly and you may also contact the AAG to share your views, the deadline for feedback is the 14th December. 

If you have any concerns or questions don’t hesitate to contact the AAG, our contact details are below.  

Yours in sport.

Members of the WPA Athlete Advisory Group

Stephen Miller, Gyu Dae Kim, Jason Smyth, Carlee Beattie, March Schuh, Jason Dunkerley.

paraathleticsaag@gmail.com / @GroupWPA (Twitter)