Special Olympics

Debate between Jonathan Ashworth and Chris Heaton-Harris

Wednesday 6th July 2011 Westminster Hall

[Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)]

It is always a pleasure to serve under your stewardship, Mr Bayley. I hope that you will be as benevolent to me as you were to the Minister in the previous debate.

Two Saturdays ago, I was in Athens for the opening ceremony of the largest sporting event in the world in 2011, yet I knew full well that few people in the United Kingdom realised that it was happening. The centrepiece of the day was the spectacular opening ceremony of the Special Olympics world summer games. It was a beautiful parade of 7,500 athletes from 185 nations, who were to compete in 22 sports over the following days. As they walked past me, I felt truly humble to be present at such a wonderful occasion.

Over the last two weeks in Greece, people have been celebrating the ability, the talent and the dedication of those athletes with learning difficulties and their coaches. Team GB comprised 214 Britons—157 athletes and 57 coaches. They were out there to win. Make no mistake about it: these are dedicated and seriously talented sportsmen and women. When they returned to the UK yesterday, our athletes brought back many special things with them, including tales of tough competition and inspirational personal achievement, the odd bruise and injury and 187 medals—72 gold, 63 silver and 52 bronze. Great Britain can truly be proud of its Special Olympians. However, we must remember that just to be there, they each had to raise £2,000, and that includes the coaches. They receive no sponsorship, and for a while now they have received no lottery funding.

There are 1.3 million people with learning difficulties in the United Kingdom, so most families are touched by learning difficulties in one shape or form. However, the Special Olympics are largely unknown here, and I hope that this debate will change that, if only in a small way. Indeed, the press coverage given to the Special Olympics world games in Athens over the last two weeks—bar the beautiful and brilliant exception of ITV Central, which covered the games daily on its news broadcasts—was difficult to spot.

Dignity, acceptance and a chance to reach one’s potential are things that all politicians believe are worth promoting for everyone, and for more than four decades the Special Olympics movement has been bringing a simple message to the world: learning-disabled people can and will succeed if they are given the opportunity.

After visiting institutions across the United States for people with what the Americans call intellectual disabilities in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a wonderful lady, found herself appalled by their treatment. She believed that, given the same opportunities and experiences as others, they were far more capable than commonly believed. She had a vision that things could be improved through the medium of sport.

Shriver put that vision into action in 1962 by inviting children with intellectual disabilities to Camp Shriver, a summer day-camp in her backyard, where they could explore their capabilities in a variety of sports and physical activities. The Camp Shriver concept—that through sports, people with intellectual disabilities could realise their potential for growth—began to spread. In July 1968, the first international Special Olympic games were held in Chicago, Illinois, and a movement was born. The Special Olympics have grown magnificently across the world, and the last UK summer games were held in the city of Leicester, in the constituency of the hon. Member for Leicester South (Jon Ashworth).

[Jon Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman and I have something in common, inasmuch as we have both been Leicester South by-election candidates, so I know that he is familiar with the city of Leicester. Does he agree not only that the games held there in 2009 were a great success for the city, and hugely beneficial and inspiring for many of the athletes, but that they played a great role in countering what might be described as misunderstandings about disabled athletes? That is something to celebrate.

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

Absolutely, and I thank the hon. Gentleman for his contribution. Given the opportunity, I hope that he will come to a Special Olympics event with me and experience again, first hand, exactly how brilliant these athletes are. It is difficult to describe the achievements that these athletes attain. They are doing things that I cannot do. I competed in one of their unified sports two Sundays ago. I was cycling against two learning-disabled athletes; my partner was from Hungary and was the co-sponsor of an event. I came a miserable fourth, and I was trying really hard. They are proper athletes doing a proper job; I certainly would not be able to do what they, with their disabilities, do.

The Special Olympics movement is where learning-disabled athletes celebrate and are celebrated for their accomplishments. It is often the first time that these athletes have truly taken centre stage and been recognised as individuals in their own right. Sport is a central element of the movement, but it is not the only one. In areas as diverse as health care, leadership training, legislative self-advocacy and employment, the Special Olympics take a global leadership role.

Tim Shriver, Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s son and now chief executive officer of the Special Olympics, says:

“Sport teaches us to recognize our similarities over our differences while celebrating the effort to do one’s best in a spirit of respect. And while Special Olympics has had a positive impact on many persons with an intellectual disability, there are many more people that are still hidden, shunned or abused. We look forward to working more closely with the international sports community to broaden the reach of our organizations and bring the joy and goodwill of sport to many more people.”

Through year-round sports training and competition, the Special Olympics empower learning-disabled individuals in more than 180 countries. The games are often the only place where they have the opportunity to participate in their communities and to develop a belief in themselves. Many lead lives of neglect and isolation, hidden away or socially excluded from full participation in schools or society. The Special Olympics transform the athlete and are a gateway to empowerment, competence, acceptance and joy. Better than that, the movement also transforms communities. When people see Special Olympians in action, they see humanity, joy in competition, pride and potential, and they begin to believe in a different sort of world—a world in which everyone is respected and included.

I shall give some examples. In 2009, the Afghanistan world winter games floor hockey team was honoured with congratulations from the highest levels of Government as a tribute to their success. In Romania, children who were once solitary and forgotten now participate in sports training and interact regularly with the community outside their institutions. In the United States, the young girl who was bullied or isolated early in her life is chosen as homecoming queen. In China—I went to the Shanghai Special Olympics summer games four years ago—people who were hidden away in their homes now receive vocational and literacy training at thousands of “sunshine centres” across the provinces.

The Special Olympics movement is also a catalyst for societal change, fostering community building around the globe. It is a leader in diversity and tolerance education, bringing young people with and without intellectual disabilities together in youth and schools outreach programmes. It is a research leader, partnering with Governments, non-governmental organisations and the private sector to develop new ways of including people with learning disabilities in all aspects of society. The movement is also the world’s largest public health organisation serving people with learning disabilities, offering free health screening to the world’s most neglected populations. It is the fastest growing grass-roots volunteer movement on the planet, with the potential to improve the quality of life of millions of people.

Why did I ask for this debate? As a fan, I wanted to tell everyone how much I enjoyed watching Great British athletes competing in the Athens games just over 10 days ago. As a spectator, I want to say how fantastic the opening ceremony, and the buzz around the events, was. It was wonderful to watch our athletes competing for their country, and to see the parents’ pride as they watched them. As a consumer, I want to let people know that the sponsors of such events deserve huge praise. Indeed, Coca-Cola should stand up and take a bow; it gave an awful lot of money to the games. As a friend of Tim Shriver, I want to pay proper respect to him and his family, especially his mother, for driving the movement forward so strongly. As a politician, I want to remind my peers how important the inclusion agenda is, and that we do not constantly have to reinvent the wheel. We have a brilliant example of what we should all be aiming for in the Special Olympics movement, and I am proud to be associated with it.

The Minister will know that Sport England is talking to Special Olympics Great Britain about the possibility of funding in the future. I hope that any logjams can be eased. Perhaps the Minister could use his good offices to get a group of people in a room and knock a few heads together to try to free up funding that could improve the lives of thousands of people across the country. It would be much better if Sport England could treat Special Olympics Great Britain as any other national sporting governing body, rather than as an individual sport. Over the years that I have been involved in sport, I have heard numerous gripes from the various sports bodies that have had to deal with Sport England, so I understand that it is a complex beast, but I would like to think that when it comes to disability sports, funding blockages can be removed.

However, I am not here to ask the Minister for more money. I know that he is a fan of the Special Olympics movement, but much as I would love more money from the Government coffers for the movement, that is not the purpose of the debate. The purpose is to celebrate the Special Olympics movement. I suppose that the Minister could possibly help, though; recently, it has been difficult for Special Olympics GB representatives to meet the officials who deal with learning-disabled and inclusion issues in the Department for Education and the Department of Health. It would be helpful if he could use his good offices to set up some meetings. I believe that the movement and the Departments could learn a great deal from each other.

The main thing that I want to hear from the Minister is the Department’s, and his, commitment to the Special Olympics movement across the UK. I want him to say how he can help to raise the profile of the movement here, and hopefully he may give a few words of congratulation to all those who have represented their country so brilliantly in Athens over the past couple of weeks.