The International Paralympic Committee says Paralympic growth could be “jeopardised” if the Games was to be merged with the Olympics.
The Para-sport programme at the 2022 Commonwealth Games has been a big success and led to calls for greater integration.
But while the sports and athletes involved in Birmingham have benefited from the increased profile, IPC spokesman Craig Spence told the BBC’s Access All podcast that the current agreement for separate Olympics and Paralympics “serves us well”.
The current deal for the same city to host both Games was signed in 2018 and runs until the 2032 Games in Brisbane.
“Since 1988, we have seen exponential growth in Paralympic sport,” said Spence, the IPC’s chief brand and communications officer.
“We are on a strong ascendancy and growing the Games so combining both events would potentially stunt and jeopardise that growth, and we could potentially go backwards.
“This is a conversation that crops up regularly, but you have to look to see if it makes sense to bring both Games together and at the moment we believe it doesn’t.
“The current agreement works for us at the moment. It serves us well and we like it and are keen to keep it.”
Birmingham has featured a record 42 Para-sport events across eight sports, with over 350 athletes taking part in a fully-integrated programme.
Huge crowds cheered on the likes of swimmers Maisie Summers-Newton and Bethany Firth, athletes Hannah Cockroft and Olivia Breen and cyclists Neil Fachie and James Ball to gold medal glory as they represented the home nations.
However, the 2024 Paris Paralympics will have 549 medal events with around 4,400 athletes plus support staff in attendance.
And while Paralympic legend Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson backs greater integration at Commonwealth as well as at European and world level, she told the podcast that the logistics of a combined Olympics and Paralympics were challenging
“On a practical level I don’t think there is a city in the world that could hold a combined Games,” she said.
“There are 10,000 athletes at an Olympics and about 4,500 at a Paralympics, and as well as the increased cost it would end up being a programme of about a month.
“So in reality, you would have to cut events and what would you cut?
“It would have to be a smaller Games and spectators wouldn’t be able to watch as many disabled people take part.
“People in Birmingham have loved watching disabled people competing [at the Commonwealth Games], so we have to keep building the profile of the Paralympics to get people coming and watching Para-athletes.”
Spence is also concerned that any merger could dilute the impact of the Paralympics.
“Britain leads the way when it comes to Paralympic sport and coverage but that’s not the same around the world,” he said.
“Maybe the equality we want is the same level of coverage from broadcasters around the world for Olympics and Paralympics – not just in Britain.
“Our fear is if you were to bring both events together you would hear much less about Paralympic performances and you would jeopardise the impact of the Games being the most transformational sporting event on earth.
“Our ambition is to continue growing the Paralympics and there is so much more potential there to make the Games even better.”
As harvest time looms for the world’s main wheat producers, countries that import wheat are hoping for a bumper global crop so that record high prices might fall. But analysis on the health of crops around the world, shared with the BBC, suggests that’s unlikely, and that Russia could be the only big winner.
From his farm three hours south-east of Paris, Sébastien Neveux is worried. Here in France’s main wheat-producing region, the weather has been strange recently.
It was extremely dry in March, April and May, a crucial time for wheat crops in France which need moisture to pull minerals up from the ground. Then, in June, there was heavy rain and hail. It was too much, too late.
“I’ll have lost 40% of this field because of drought and intense heat,” says Mr Neveux. He estimates he’ll lose 25% of his wheat crop overall.
Working with two companies that analyse data on crop health, the BBC has found that some of the world’s main wheat producers could see weaker harvests than anticipated this year because of bad weather.
In the EU that could mean 4.7 million tonnes less wheat than last year, which is bad news for countries hoping to find alternatives to Ukrainian wheat.
The analysis looked at information from satellite images, which can determine how healthy a plant is by how much infrared light the plant reflects back at the satellites’ cameras. That information is then cross-referenced with data about weather and soil moisture to indicate the potential harvest.
Standing in his wheat field, Mr Neveux pulls two stalks from the ground. One is long and golden, the other short and blackened. Rolling each ear between his palms, he blows away the husks to reveal the grains inside. The healthy plant has many plump grains, the other one has just a couple of shrivelled ones. It’s disappointing.
“The grain won’t have the right quality for milling flour. It’ll have to go to cow or chicken feed. So I’ll sell it for less,” he says.
More than a third of the planet relies on wheat as a staple food. It provides more calories in the world’s diet than any other single crop. And as the global population is growing, every year we have to produce more.
At the beginning of 2021 wheat prices were at a record high, thanks to a spike in demand after the coronavirus pandemic and bad harvests in some major exporting countries. Then Russia invaded Ukraine – the world’s fifth biggest wheat exporter – and prices soared even higher, sparking concerns of a global hunger crisis.
According to analysis shared with the BBC by Kayrros and EarthDaily Analytics, three of the world’s five major wheat exporters (the US, France and Ukraine) could see lower than expected yields this year.
The US is the world’s third-biggest wheat exporter but severe drought in spring in two main wheat-producing states, Kansas and Oklahoma, could mean yields are 7-8% lower this year than the five-year average.
India also produces vast volumes of wheat, most of which is consumed within the country. This year India increased the amount of wheat planted, leading many to hope it could become a significant exporter and ease the strain on global supplies. But extreme heatwaves hit India just as the crop was at a crucial stage for developing grain.
In response, the Indian government put an export ban on wheat in early May. EarthDaily’s analysis suggests that India’s production this year has been 10 million tonnes lower than expected.
Not everywhere has seen disastrous weather though. Canada experienced very severe drought last year which led to historically low yields for wheat. This year the crop is looking much healthier, and EarthDaily estimates that the harvest will be above the five-year average.
In Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, the crop is looking particularly promising. Thanks to very favourable weather its yields could be 6% higher than average this year, leading to fears that Russia could use grain for political leverage.
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled news network Russia Today, joked at the St Petersburg Economic Forum in June about how Moscow could exploit the crop, commenting that she had heard people saying, “All hopes are pinned on the famine.”
“It means that a famine is about to start and now they will come to their senses and lift sanctions, and generally make friends with us,” she continued, “because they will realise that it’s impossible not to be friends with us.”
In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country had no plans to restrict access to its grain.
But Russia’s crop may not be enough to offset deficits elsewhere in the world, says Elena Neroba, a Ukrainian grains analyst with the trading firm, Maxigrain. And Russia could find it difficult to sell. Food is not subject to sanctions, but the restrictions make doing business with Russia complicated.
“Really big companies will avoid trading with Russia because it’s a huge risk. If you are a state reserve or a multinational company, it’s not just the risk of a volatile price, it’s a risk to your reputation,” Ms Neroba says.
It’s also unclear how much of Ukraine’s wheat will make it out of the country, as Russia has been attacking grain stores, dropping incendiary bombs on fields of dry crops, and blockading the main export route via ports in the Black Sea.
As wheat harvests get under way, prices are dropping slightly but they are still 48.5% higher than this time last year, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Price is determined by supply and demand and it is heavily influenced by expectation. Earlier this year expectations were high for the wheat crop in most regions, but war and bad weather dashed those hopes.
The FAO is more optimistic about the crop in the US than the satellite-based analysis from Kayrros and EarthDaily. But it predicts that global wheat production will decline by 0.8% or three million tonnes. That doesn’t mean a major shortage of wheat but it does ensure prices will remain high, hitting low-income countries that rely on wheat imports the hardest.
The FAO’s chief economist, Maximo Torero, is especially worried about next year, if the war continues and farmers can’t access fertiliser, much of which comes from Russia.
“If we continue to have increasing prices of fertilisers, there is potential risk that yields will reduce,” he says. “And that’s when we could be talking about a huge food crisis.”
The pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine have exposed just how vulnerable our global food system is to shocks. Climate change, which makes extreme and unpredictable weather more common, means more shocks are sure to come.
“Four or five countries control the major share of the wheat exports in the world,” says Mr Torero. “If something happens to any of these countries because of extreme weather conditions, it will immediately have an impact on world exports.”
Farmers like Sébastien Neveux have no choice but to try to adapt. He’s in his early 40s and inherited the farm from his father, but the way he must farm is different now.
“We need to find plants that are more resistant. And they have to become resistant more quickly to survive climate change. The natural cycle of selection is not going to adapt quickly enough.”
Marching through his wheat field he stops to pull another small, stunted stalk from the ground. Though this damaged plant won’t make him any profit, he turns it over in his hands admiringly. It’s sad, he says – but it also gives him hope.
“It does everything it can to fight, to produce, to make grain,” he says. “It has this extraordinary instinct to survive.”
The Plan of God for every believer is one
detailed with ever increasing growth in terms
of progress and achievements.
No matter what you and I might have accomplished
till date, there is always more to be done.
Do not settle for good at the detriment of the
best! Chart a new course, map out a new master
plan to further enhance the livelihood of humanity
in general; from the starving children in Africa to
the displaced women in difference parts of the
Middle-East, if only you and I would show concern,
humanity could have better days ahead!
Arise and depart!!
Absolute agreement with the will of the Father by commitment
to following His orders, of no doubt would bring a man
under a “preference” zone under Jehovah’s watch.
Service starts and ends with obedience, without which all
efforts are a pure waste of time. I admonish you to Serve
Him with your time, energy, resources and strength in
total obedience and see how He would respond with a
multiplication of the same.
He always keeps to His side of the covenant!
The Holy Spirit was introduced into the earth for
the advantage of we believers because God saw the
need for His presence! His mission among others
is to ensure that the believer lives a life well
pleasing to the Father, by his exposure to the
reality of what God’s plans are and the availabilty
of His enabling grace for delivery!
Therefore, I charge you in the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ to embrace the person of the Holy Spirit
that you may start experiencing the hidden riches of
God’s glory reserved for you!
Bible References: Luke 11:13, Acts 1:8, John 14:26
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