The recent decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) not to include sailing on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games sports programme shocked the international sailing community.
The news was an enormous disappointment for the sport of sailing worldwide, in our country and for our Australian Sailing Team and Squad athletes who are working hard, not only towards Rio 2016, but also towards Tokyo 2020.
We will now work together with ISAF, and our 139 Member National Authorities (MNAs), to fight for sailing to be reinstated at the Paralympic Games and together we believe we can make this work.
Let’s feed back information to make IPC want sailing back in the Games. Let’s spread the news how important Paralympic sailing is for our sport as well as for an integrated sports world as a whole.
We believe the decision is a loss to Paralympic sport as a whole as sailing provides unique opportunities for athletes with a disability to get involved with and participate in high performance sport and to compete on a world-class and paralympic level. Paralympic sailing caters for athletes with a wide range of physical impairments including those with high-level disabilities such as quadriplegia, allowing sailors to steer and control boats using just a finger, toe or breath.
Or in the words of our dual Paralympian and 2012 London Gold Medallist Daniel Fitzgibbon: “Sailing is the only Paralympic sport that allows quadriplegics, such as myself, to compete against much more able athletes on an even and fair platform. And to take this opportunity away from future athletes in my situation, or worse, is a very disappointing decision.”
Please share this with your clubs, communities, supporters, contacts and show the world that Paralympic sailing is a unique sport and one of the most inclusive sports of the Games. Share your compelling letter on the importance of getting Paralympic sailing reinstated. Find more info from ISAF here: http://www.sailing.org/news/39733.php
Share, retweet and post your own photos on instagram, inspiring stories within your networks and keep using the Hashtag #ReinstateSailing – let’s spread the word, let’s get this trending.
Sign the petition here: http://chn.ge/1zbZgqy
Follow the Australian Sailing Team updates via our Paralympic sailors on facebook. Follow the Australian Sailing Team updates via our Paralympic sailors on facebook on @AusSailingTeam and via their crew pages @FitzgibbonTesch-Rio-2016 (Twitter @LieslTesch) , @AusSonarSailingTeam (Twitter @AusSonarTeam), @MattBugg2.4mracing, @neilsailigadventure (Twitter @NeilPatterson24) and Twitter Brett Pearce @bpearce76
You find all our Australian Sailing Team’s Paralympic sailor social media contact details here: http://www.australiansailing.org/teams/paralympic/
We on the Australian Sailing Team will be supporting the campaign with our athletes, we will be sharing our stories about our way into sailing, our love for sailing across multiple classes and the opportunities it brings for everyone with or without a disability. And we are hoping for plenty of retweets and sharing over the next few days.
Sample facebook/post – please post and tweet: International Paralympic Committee @Paralympic #REINSTATESAILING for the 2020 Paralympics! http://chn.ge/1zbZgqy via @UKChange #AusSailing
Thank you for your support to #ReinstateSailing!
– Cora Zillich
