Inclusion Daily Express -- Athletes With Intellectual Disabilities Might Compete In London Paralympics

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Athletes With Intellectual Disabilities Might Compete In London Paralympics
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 27, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA--Athletes with intellectual disabilities should find out next month whether they will be allowed to compete in the Paralympics when the games start in 2012 in London.

The BBC reported Friday that the International Paralympics Committee and the International Sports Federation for Persons with an Intellectual Disability will present a proposal to the IPC's General Assembly in mid-November to allow such athletes to again be included in future games.

The IPC stopped allowing athletes with intellectual disabilities to participate in January 2001 after it was learned that 10 members of Spain's gold-medal winning Paralympic basketball team at the 2000 Sydney Games had no disabilities.

One team member, Carlos Ribagorda, turned out to be a journalist for a popular Madrid magazine. He wrote about the deception and described how Spanish officials' failed to discover the scam.

The Spanish team was forced to return their gold medals.

After the 2000 games, the IPC said that it would not allow athletes with intellectual disabilities to participate as long as there was no way to keep bogus athletes from cheating the system.

Athletes with intellectual disabilities and their supporters pressured the IPC to change its ruling, calling the ban a blatant form of discrimination.

In November of 2004, about 200 Paralympic officials from 78 countries voted overwhelmingly to allow such athletes to return to IPC competition once a process is developed to ensure that they indeed do have intellectual disabilities. Two years later, the IPC blocked those athletes from competing in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics after finding no accepted method to screen out athletes that try to fake an intellectual disability.

While not giving details, the committee told the BBC that the IPC and the INAS-FID have developed a way to prevent cheating, while allowing athletes with intellectual disabilities to compete.

The IPC's General Assembly is set to take place in Kuala Lumpur beginning November 19.

Related:
International Sports Federation for Persons with an Intellectual Disability
http://www.inas-fid.org

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