The Future of Adaptive Sport in Australia
SUMMARY
BACKGROUND
As we celebrate many wonderful moments from the 2024 Paralympics, it is opportune we assess where the Adaptive Sports sector is in Australia. With 8 years until an Australian Paralympic Games in Brisbane 2032, we have a moment in time to thoroughly lift the covers on the way we have designed the Adaptive Sports System in this country.
Critically, this conversation must not start with funding. Whilst funding is an important enabler of evidence-based system design, we can have a very different conversation when we start with the brief: to create a sustainable and thriving Adaptive Sports System in Australia.
In short, funding follows great ideas, not the other way around. Our first job is to reimagine the system with an evidence-based approach, before we discuss how to fund it.
We also need to define the scope of the task in front of us. One of the key outcomes of an Australian Paralympic Games in 8 years is that people with disabilities have the opportunity to participate in sport and active recreation in a sustainable way, well beyond 2032.
For this reason, we define the sector we're looking to reimagine as the Adaptive Sports Sector, inclusive of all Adaptive Sport and Recreation opportunities in Australia. This includes the 29 Summer and Winter Paralympic Sports, referred to as Para-Sports, but also includes all of the wonderful Adaptive Sports that aren't part of the Paralympic Games such as Adaptive Surfing, Wheelchair AFL, Adaptive Touch Football and Special Olympics just to name a few.
For a comprehensive view of the breadth of Adaptive Sport and Recreation opportunities available, we created The Adaptive Movement in NSW/ACT alongside our Sector Partners and with the support of icare NSW . Any investment in the Brisbane 2032 Paralympic Games needs to have a view of how we create a sustainable Adaptive Sports System, starting with consumer choice for people with disabilities.
WHERE ARE WE TODAY?
Whilst the results for Australia from the 2024 Paralympic Games only tell part of a complex story, they are an important input into this discussion. Here are the publicly available points of note:
1) Australia's ranking of 9th from the Paris Paralympics is the lowest since 1988
2) Our Gold Medal tally of 18 is our lowest since 1980
3) Our Paralympic team size of 160 is equal to London 2012 and the equal lowest since 2004
It should be noted that these challenging figures don't reflect in any way on our fantastic Paralympians and the wonderful way they represented Australia in Paris. Further, these trends don't diminish the great work Paralympics Australia has done to grow awareness of Australian Paralympians, making them one of our country's most loved sporting teams.
However, these concerning figures need to be included in a comprehensive review of the Adaptive Sports Sector in Australia.
For a rigorous review, we also need to include the long term participation numbers for people with disabilities in Adaptive Sport across Australia. We need to understand how many people are participating in the bottom of the pyramid, in addition to how many make it to the top, as one is reliant on the other.
Unfortunately, there is very little meaningful data in this regard. The AusPlay Tracking Survey run by the Australian Sports Commission provides a topline participation % for adults living with a disability, and we can compare this to Total Australian Adults:
Whilst it is clear that participation in sport for adults with disabilities is below that of Total Australian Adults, we are unable to generate similar information for children, nor ascertain participation numbers by Adaptive Sport in any substantive way.
The next place one would go for participation numbers by sport for people with disabilities is the Governing Bodies for the sports themselves. It is at this point the haphazardness and long term decay of the Adaptive Sports sector in Australia becomes apparent, with the following observations:
1) The Adaptive Sports sector in Australia is haphazardly organised.
The mainstream sports sector in Australia generally has 1 National Governing Body and 1 Governing Body per State, usually with clear branding and State based colours for clarity to the end user. In contrast, the Adaptive Sports Sector rarely has an identifiable Governing Body structure, and if one exists, it is often poorly branded and extremely confusing to the end user, with some exceptions.
2) Adaptive Sport in Australia has 3 different Delivery Models, which have not been intentionally designed nor monitored over time
In mainstream sport, a typical State Sporting Organisation will deliver 1 sport and do so independently, often via their Club network e.g. Gymnastics QLD, Tennis VIC, Swimming NSW.
In a confusing contrast, Adaptive Sport has 3 observable delivery models:
3) Adaptive Sport in Australia is generally not a User Pays Model, resulting in the decaying of Adaptive Sporting organisations across Australia over a sustained period.
In some preliminary analysis of publicly available information from a collection of mainstream sporting organisations in NSW/ACT, these organisations receive between 22% - 86% of their income from participants i.e. players paying their annual fees to play.
In contrast, since the early days of many Adaptive Sporting organisations in the 1960s and 1970s, these organisations haven't charged their participants to play, or charged very little. The business model is often a traditional charity that underwrites the sports.
领英推荐
As a result of not having a User Pays Model, and as the regulatory environments we work in become more complex and costly, there are examples of Adaptive Sporting organisations closing down, or gradually reducing the amount of Adaptive Sports they deliver for people living with disabilities.
In brief, the underlying organisational structure for the delivery of Adaptive Sport in Australia needs to be recreated.
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
A home Paralympic Games in 2032 and the investment that brings are opportunities not to be wasted. We have a moment to pause, and redesign what a modern Adaptive Sports System can look like for people with disabilities across Australia. Indeed, Adaptive Sport is also available for Australians who don't live with a disability, but who want their sport adapted as they age or incur short term injuries.
At Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT , we have developed a Theory of Change and a set of design principles specific to Adaptive Sports over the last 5 years. As a result of these principles we:
1) Achieved a 380% increase in Membership
2) Grew to a record number of Wheelchair Sports Clubs across NSW/ACT
3) Increased the sports for which we are the Governing Body from 6 to 9
4) Provided the 2nd largest contingent of High Performance Paralympic athletes to Paralympics Australia for the 2024 Paralympic Games
This is not to say we are getting everything right, and we have significant work to do as we continue our journey to professionalise the delivery of Wheelchair Sport in NSW/ACT. There are also plenty of Adaptive Sporting organisations across Australia doing work we admire.
However, we now offer these specific design principles in Adaptive Sport to the Australian Sports Commission, in the hope they can help increase participation in sport for Australians with a disability.
SELF-DIRECTION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
In addition to the abovementioned insights, our research over the last 12 months with experts in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) informs a crucial element in the design of Adaptive Sport for people with disabilities. Critical to the long term growth of Adaptive Sport is codifying Self-Direction for people with disabilities into the system. This can be done by ensuring the representative organisation for people with disabilities is the lead agency in the system, working with other interested stakeholders to create great outcomes.
In our case, we have achieved sustained growth in sports participation for people with disabilities, and high performance in Adaptive Sport across all elements of our Pathways, because Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT is the Governing Body for the sports. As the lead agency in the system, our organisation has the following key elements:
1) 100% focus on people with disabilities
2) 4 x Elected Directors on our Board living with a disability
3) 63 years of experience with all aspects of Adaptive Sport, including
On this point, we strongly encourage Governing Body responsibility for Adaptive Sport in a reimagined system to be conferred to organisations with 100% focus on people with disabilities. In this way, we codify self-direction for people with disabilities into the Adaptive Sport System, and in doing so, avoid the observable decline in focus that occurs when people with disabilities are assimilated into mainstream sport.
For the avoidance of doubt, this design principle is entirely consistent with the opportunity to invite mainstream sports to collaborate in the delivery of Adaptive Sports. Mainstream sports have a key role to play in the Adaptive Sports System, and can add great value.
To demonstrate, Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT is pioneering the concept of Co-Delivery, a model that seeks to use the best skills of Adaptive Sporting organisations and mainstream sporting organisations. This collaborative approach is yielding strong early results for growing Wheelchair Sport across NSW/ACT, working in Co-Delivery with mature, open and professional Partners such as AFL NSW/ACT , Tennis NSW and Bowls NSW Limited .
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
We are at a crucial moment for the Adaptive Sports System in Australia. Before we move to implement any changes in advance of Brisbane 2032, we are advocating for a system review that:
We have an incredible opportunity right now to create sustainable change for people with disabilities in Australian sport. It will take a lot of work, and we’re ready to play our part.
Mick Garnett - CEO
Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT
Managing Director at Nudge | Athlete #44 | Author of Travel Memoir "A Backpack, a Chair & a Beard”
2 个月Loved the article! Having just moved from NZ, it’s been an awesome firsthand experience on how easy it is to get into adaptive sports here in NSW. Whether it’s trying something new or competing, you guys make it so accessible. Keep it up, Mick and WSNSW! ??
GAICD | Impact Investment | Structured and Blended Finance | Equitable and Nutritious Food Systems | Sustainable Agriculture | Financial Inclusion | Gender Equality
2 个月Funding follows good ideas - and these are Good Ideas. Appreciate the insightful diagnosis of challenges in the adaptive sports system, and your 5 clear design principles to create sustainable change for people with disabilities in Australian sport Mick Garnett.
Innovator.Thinker. A track record of getting great projects off the ground.
2 个月It is interesting that Australia’s Paralympic performance held up after Sydney (5th in every Games through to Rio) until the Australian Sports Commission removed Paralympics Australia’s role in directly funding and overseeing the high performance programs of the NSOs. The current model has reduced the ability of PA to influence the direction of programs and has also served to reduce the disability specific high performance knowledge pool within PA. PA has moved in the direction of ‘feel good’ by default, having lost much of its influence on performance. There is no doubt that a disability specific input at all levels seems to continue to be necessary to generate outcomes, from participation to high performance.
Leveraging Evidence to Create Healthy and Active Communities
2 个月An insightful summary of the challenges and current state of the Adaptive Sports sector. I truly appreciate your call for action and the need for continued advocacy. I hope more people in the sector will join you to keep pushing for these vital improvements—your efforts are making a significant difference!
Officially retired but may be up for interesting and worthwhile work - perhaps!
2 个月Great work Mick - I’ll touch base when back in Oz - had many conversations in Paris during the Games along these lines and caught up with international colleagues - happy to share thoughts when I get back.