What's your excuse?

The Paralympics, the world's second largest sporting event, will be held August 16-25, 1996 in Atlanta, with over 3,500 elite athletes with physical disabilities from over 100 nations competing. As the Games swiftly approach, park, recreation and therapeutic recreation agencies should begin to assess their unique role in contributing to the Paralympic movement.

The Paralympic competition emerged from the vision of Sir Ludwig Guttman, a neurosurgeon at Stoke-Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, England. Sir Guttman first organized the International Wheelchair Games to coincide with the 1948 Olympics in an attempt to connect the Olympics and the Paralympics. However, it was not until 1960 that the two sporting events began to coincide on a permanent basis. Since 1960, when the Paralympics only involved athletes who used wheelchairs, the Games have expanded to include athletes with amputations, visual impairments, and cerebral palsy.

The 1996 Paralympic Games will highlight athletes competing in 17 sports, 14 of which are Olympic sports, and two demonstration sports. There will be over 700 events, because Paralympic athletes compete according to degree of disability and functional level. The Olympics, by comparison, have approximately 330 events.

Paralympian achievements compare favorably with those of Olympians. For example, Tony Volpentest, who has a double-leg amputation, runs 100 meters in 11.6 seconds. This time is less than two seconds behind Carl Lewis' then world record set during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Kim Brownfield, with paraplegia, bench-presses 602 pounds; the world record is 677 pounds set in the super heavyweight division. Trisch Zorn, a swimmer with visual impairments, missed making the 1992 Olympic team by .001 seconds and won 10 gold medals in the Paralympics that same year.

Athletic achievement is not the only outcome of the Paralympics. The Games are about a movement. A movement that is letting the world know that people with physical disabilities can achieve anything despite their disability. The Paralympics will leave behind a legacy of awareness for people with disabilities all over the world. Awareness will also be built through programs like the Third Paralympic Congress, which will bring together 2,000 people from around the world, including leaders of the disability rights and disabled sports movements. The Congress will focus on issues that face people with disabilities and provide real solutions to real problems.

The Atlanta Paralympic Organizing Committee (APOC) hopes to leave behind a legacy following the 1996 Games. This legacy will include financial support for athletes with disabilities, trained volunteers, increased opportunities in sport for people with disabilities, public awareness and appreciation for the abilities of people with disabilities, and increased involvement of the business community.

How will this happen? APOC has created an awareness for the Games and promoted the mission through marketing efforts. Brighthouse, Inc., a marketing firm hired by APOC, developed the motivational slogan "What's your Excuse?" to be intricately woven into the theme of the Paralympics--"the triumph of the human spirit."

Human spirit combined with the question "What's your excuse?" calls to park, recreation, and therapeutic recreation agencies to promote the Paralympic movement and provide recreation and sports opportunities for people with disabilities. On a national level, NRPA and the National Therapeutic Recreation Society (NTRS), a branch of NRPA, are National Organization Patrons of the 1996 Paralympic Games. A patron organization allows communication vehicles (magazines, newsletters, etc.) to reach numerous markets, and fosters growth of marketing programs, Paralympic programs, and government relations. There are various opportunities for park, recreation and therapeutic recreation agencies to become involved in the 1996 Paralympic Games. They can provide volunteers for the Games, support the torch relay from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta or sponsor a child's attendance at the Games.

While these are certainly important contributions, park, recreation and therapeutic recreation agencies have an increasingly major role to play and there are numerous examples of that role emerging today. Tim Willis, a runner with visual impairments, uses Stone Mountain State Park in Georgia as a training site. Willis praises the benefits of local fitness facilities in park, recreation and therapeutic recreation agencies to athletes like him. When he's not in training, Willis speaks to a wide variety of groups, from elementary school students to older adults. Willis expresses that "doing something," whether it be academically or recreationally, is very crucial for anyone in society.

From a different angle, some athletes have become involved in recreation and leisure studies or therapeutic recreation as a career choice. Ann Cody, who has a spinal cord injury, captured four silver medals in the 1988 Seoul Paralympics in a number of wheelchair racing events. Cody earned her master's degree in Leisure Studies in 1992 at the University of Illinois. She now resides in Atlanta and is a sports planning manager with APOC. Cody educates other people with disabilities about the options in athletics and inspires them with her own positive attitude toward the challenge of competition.

Reggie Colton, who has a double-leg amputation, captured a gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games in wheelchair basketball. He led Team USA in scoring (91 points) and rebounding (67). Colton obtained a master's degree in Therapeutic Recreation from the University of Florida in 1987. Colton credits his coach, Mark Crowder, for becoming his greatest role model and mentor stating, "He taught me to set goals and go for them."

An interview with Andrew Fleming, President and CEO of the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games hopes the theme encourages all Americans to forgo the couch.

On April 4,1996, an interview was conducted with Andrew Fleming, president and CEO of APOC, to shed some light on the challenge for park, recreation and therapeutic recreation agencies to pursue greater opportunities for people with disabilities. Fleming's career in sports for people with disabilities began in 1979, when he served as director of an adaptive recreation program; a program he designed, for the City of Santa Barbara's recreation department. With more than 15 years of experience, Fleming most recently served as director of sports and recreation of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, where he directed the nation's largest wheelchair sports program.

Fleming's expertise in the area of sports for people with disabilities is enhanced by his personal experience as a nationally-recognized wheelchair athlete. Injured et the age of 24, Fleming has a double-leg amputation and participates in wheelchair basketball, track and swimming. He was part of several all-star basketball teams, won silver medals in national championship track and swimming and swam on a record-breaking relay team in national competition. He was elected to the National Wheelchair Athletic Association's Hall of Fame in 1994.

NRPA: The 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games will involve world-class athletes who happen to have a disability. Yet the Games' marketing theme, "What's your excuse,?" seems to speak to all Americans. What messages do you hope to convey throughout the Paralympic Games?

Fleming: I wish that the marketing theme, "What's your excuse?" was something that I could claim as part of my inspiration or genius, but it isn't. It came out of the minds and creativity of the people associated with our marketing effort. That message combined with the Games' theme "triumph of the human spirit," captures in a nutshell what the Paralympic Games are all about. The theme challenges everyone to do more with their own lives, whether it's on a field of play or in other endeavors.

NRPA: Do you envision an application of these themes after the Games ?

Fleming: On a programmatic level, I want the Games to be as successful as the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. That is, the Olympic movement benefited from Los Angeles' fiscal success. If we can accomplish that, we will establish the platform for future growth and development of the Paralympic movement in the United States.

The unprecedented success that we have had in bringing on corporate support for the Games, television interest, the media's interest, and the organizations, such as the National Recreation and Park Association, goes very far toward meeting our goal. It helps establish the foundation or platform for future growth. I think it's very important that what we accomplish here in Atlanta has an impact at the local level throughout the United States. Community park and recreation agencies, for example, have a very important role to play in improving opportunities for people with disabilities.

NRPA: Early on in your career you were employed by the City of Santa Barbara recreation and park department. How did that evolve?

Fleming: When people ask me how I got involved with this business and that agency in particular, I say,'by accident.' It came about as a direct result of the injury I received when I was 24.

After I lost my legs when I was run over by a train, I got involved in wheelchair sports. I joined a community wheelchair basketball team and became involved with other athletes who were competing. This rekindled my desire to compete and excel. It also helped me successfully deal with my injury and the rehabilitation process. Time and again, when I was involved with competitive wheelchair sports, I saw the very positive impact of involvement with sports and recreation on other people attempting to deal with their own injuries and disabilities.

At the same time, I was frustrated because the kinds of community recreation programs that had been available to me as an able-bodied person in Santa Barbara, which had a very highly regarded community recreation program, largely did not exist for people with disabilities. I felt that was patently wrong, especially understanding as I did, that there was tremendous value for people who got involved with those programs. I became involved as a volunteer with a group of other citizens who had similar interests. We did quite a bit of work with the City and the recreation department, encouraging officials to start a program for the independent living center down at the recreation department.

I was eventually hired on a part-time basis as the first assistant recreation supervisor. Richard Johns and the other people in senior capacities provided the structure, but allowed me to be creative and find out what people with disabilities wanted to do.

I focused on wheelchair sports events for three reasons. One, there were comparatively few opportunities for people with disabilities in Santa Barbara to experience sports. In fact, there were virtually none, other than a sort of fledgling wheelchair basketball team. Second, I believed, and later could prove, that focusing on sporting events would attract media attention. This would show others with disabilities that people just like them were out in the community, pursuing sports and recreation activities, pursuing healthy, happy lives. This was a story that needed to be told, and could best be told through the medium of sports. Finally, I felt that the sporting events would also start to dispel some of the stereotypes about people with disabilities not being able to compete and excel. I have continued to work on these three things for the past 17 years. The Paralympic Games is just the largest expression of those concepts today.

NRPA: You obviously were met with a rather receptive agency. Did the Department of Recreation and Parks recognize the need to reach people with disabilities and the long-term value?

Fleming: Oh, absolutely! I didn't know it at the time, but I was very fortunate to be in that environment in that department, with somebody like Richard Johns. He was very supportive of what we were trying to accomplish, and was very empathetic with the need and the value of having these programs, even though for a long time I was a one-man operation.

Others in the department were also very receptive to me. I think everybody had the idea that it was the right thing to do. The person in charge of the cultural arts program, for example, helped with the modifications that were needed to make to the cultural arts centers accessible, either through architectural or programmatic changes so that people with disabilities could attend. We also spent a lot of time repositioning existing programs that were accessible and marketing them to people with disabilities. The core programs that I developed were the larger scale wheelchair sports events that attracted media attention. We also involved the city council, to make sure that they understood what was going on.

Richard Johns and the management were very supportive in elevating the visibility of the programs. On the local level, we focused on collaboration and gaining support of other agencies and institutions in the greater Santa Barbara community. We went to schools, universities and the city college and worked with them to build our resources so that there wasn't a duplication of effort.

One of the challenges that you're always dealing with at the community level is getting enough people involved in an activity to have a critical mass of participation, and thus economic feasibility. We achieved that through collaborative relationships, as well as with private sponsorships.

NRPA: The majority of publicly sponsored or financed programs for persons with disabilities appear to focus on retraining for employment, that is, getting a person back into the job market. Some argue that recreation is overlooked as a critical factor in the process of regaining confidence and strength to physically function, for example, in the workplace. Is that a fair assessment?

Fleming: Yes, it is. That has been my experience, and it's one of my fundamental views. A person must get involved in some form of purposeful activity--whether it's recreational sports or just rekindling the desire to hunt or fish or pursue whatever recreational activities the individual pursued before their injury. This is critical to successful rehabilitation. You have to create that desire, and one of the most productive ways of doing that, time and again, is through sports and recreation.

I also believe that the key is for the individual, at the onset of a disability, is to find something of meaning to them and to pursue that fully. It might be education, it might be advocacy, it might be social efforts, but the key is to find something. Further, since many who incur significant disabilities are young people who have been injured in high-risk activities, we must recognize that they still need to be young in our society. They must feel that they are participating fully.

NRPA: Are there some things that NRPA might do, or that a public park and recreation, or therapeutic recreation agency might do in collaboration?

Fleming: Leadership is the key. The other key is collaboration with agencies that have responsibility or interest in services to people with disabilities. Rehabilitation centers can be a very valuable resource, as they certainly were in Santa Barbara. But it's leadership, it's collaboration, and it's the attention and acknowledgment by senior management that programs are important.

The issue really needs to be approached on two fronts. One is to create programs which involve citizens with disabilities in therapeutic recreation programs. The second is to maximize accessibility to programs available to the general public. There must be integrated opportunities as well as unique opportunities.

NRPA: "What's Your Excuse" would appear to be an important theme for public park and recreation professionals. Is it something they should embrace?

Fleming: That attitude is an important one to convey, and it is something that is embedded in the spirit of most of the community park and recreation professionals that I have met. These individuals really try to provide programs that challenge members of a community to get involved.

NRPA: In terms of the media, is this going to be the first time the Paralympics will have major television coverage?

Fleming: Yes, it will be the first time in the United States that the Paralympics has television coverage. It has been covered in Europe and in the Far East in previous years.

NRPA: Will the media look at the athletes in terms of their broader experiences?

Fleming: Definitely. Our plans currently indicate that the Paralympics will be telecast on CBS the two weekends on either side of the Games, themselves. Specifically, August 16, 17,18, 24, and 25. It will also be televised regionally on cable and we are working to expand that coverage. We are going to tell the story of the Games by focusing on a few key athletes and their experiences during the Games. But we will also focus on their preparation for the Games and their daily lives. We will describe the challenges that they have successfully dealt with, and what they are doing in their lives, in addition to preparing to compete in the Paralympic Games.

NRPA: It is probably the wrong time of year to ask you about your personal recreation behavior, but what are your leisure interests?

Fleming: One of the things that personally frustrates me in this position is that I no longer have enough time. I used to swim and work out religiously, but I have found that the demands on my time in this position are such that if I get any personal recreation, it is usually on the weekends. I enjoy playing tennis and swimming with my family. But, it is not at all the kind of physical work out that I know is preferable, and that I will get back to soon after the closing ceremonies.