Athlete Advisory Council
Increasing Paralympic Athlete Participation In the Athlete Advisory Council
BY MARY WEEKS ATHLETE ADVISORY COUNCIL
Being an athlete repre-
sentative on the AAC has truly been a learning expe- rience, and one of the best parts of the experience for me has been learning about all different kinds of sports and how they are governed. One thing that has been par- ticularly interesting for me is learning more about the Paralympics. In a previous article,
I
briefl y listed each of the four strategic planning initiatives that the AAC has decided to tackle in the 2013-2016 quadrennial.
One of the
broad initiatives I mentioned was increasing Paralympic athlete representation. But what does that really mean? There are currently eight
Paralympic athlete repre- sentatives on the AAC: six from summer sports, and two from winter sports. Ath- letics, swimming, skiing, and cycling each have one rep-
resentative; summer team sports has one represen- tative; summer individual sports have two representa- tives; and winter individual sports have one representa- tive. There are more than two dozen different Paralym- pic sports featuring dozens more events – Paralympic shooting, for example, fea- tures eight rifl e events and four pistol events. Given that there are only eight Paralympic ath- lete representatives for all these Paralympic sports and events, our Paralympic athletes on the AAC have the diffi cult task of learn- ing about sports and events they may never have par- ticipated in so that they can be effective represen- tatives for those sports. In addition, not all Paralympic sports are integrated within their respective able-bodied national governing bodies
(NGB). In other words, not all Paralympic sports are man- aged by the NGB that also manages the able-bodied Olympic sports programs. These factors make the job of a Paralympic athlete rep- resentative particularly chal- lenging. In part, increasing Para-
lympic athlete representa- tion entails acknowledging those challenges and being more inclusive and respon- sive to the roles and needs of Paralympic athlete rep- resentatives. Part of this goal is to establish regular communication between our Paralympic athletes and entities like the United States Olympic Committee, the NGB Council, and USOC Paralympic leadership. In addition, however, the AAC has determined it is also important for Paralympic athletes to have more direct contact and infl uence with their NGBs and sport lead- ers.
The fact that USA Shoot-
ing manages both the Olym- pic and Paralympic shooting programs gives us a great
A record number of Paralympic participants competed in the USA Shooting National Champi- onships for Rifl e/Pistol.
opportunity to establish good communication be- tween our Paralympic ath- letes and our NGB. One step we’ve taken in that regard is including Paralympic ath- letes on the Athlete Panel that was formed to help improve communication between our athletes and USA Shooting. We are also fortunate at USA Shooting to have a wonderful Paralym- pic athlete representative, Karin Korb, who is engaged and eager to learn more about the shooting sports and our athletes. Karin is an extremely accomplished ten- nis player and is one of the two Paralympic representa- tives representing summer individual sports. While this is a good start
to helping the AAC achieve its goals of improving Para- lympic athlete representa- tion within our NGB, we are always looking for ways to do more! I’d encourage any athlete who has ideas about how to improve athlete rep- resentation within our NGB— Paralympic or Olympic—to contact me or your discipline athlete representatives.
Mary Weeks (AAC)
shootingaac@gmail.com
12
USA Shooting News | July 2014
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