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Submission by Special Olympics Australia on 04 November 2008.
1. Ensure Australia's continued elite sporting success
No response
2. Better place sport and physical activity as a key component of the Government's preventative health approach
Intellectual Disability and Sport : Up to early 1970s people with an intellectual disability were generally housed in institutions that were isolated from society and those that managed these institutions provided their residents with a range of activities including sport or physical education (PE). In the 1980s in countries around the globe, there was a move to close down institutions and place people with a disability in society. Special Education units in mainstream schools were set up, group homes were established in towns and suburbs and those that were of sufficiently high functioning ability were employed in special workshops. Others not able for employment were and are provided with a pension. Now the education system provides structure, support and recreation while the student is at school. Teachers and support workers are dedicated and give their students every opportunity to develop. Generally students are transported by bus or taxi direct to the school in the morning and home in the evening. There is routine and structure in their lives and quite often this involves sport training. However it is very unusual if there is any competition, especially outside the school environment. If extra sport activity or competition should happen outside school hours, problems arise because the bus timetable rules and people with an intellectual disability are not as able to manage public transport. ENTER SPECIAL OLYMPICS: In the mid 1970s as the institutions were closing down in Australia, parents came together organised some sport activities solely for their children because they could do this in a non judgemental atmosphere where an intellectual disability was the norm and there was no expectation of behaving like ""normal"" people. They felt they had a ""Place to Belong"" at Special Olympics and clubs sprung up in different sites doing different sports and fulfilling their needs. IN 1985 AUSTRALIA SENT ITS FOREMOST TEAM TO A WORLD GAMES - IT CONSISTED OF 8 ATHLETES; IN 2007 THE TEAM CONSISTED OF 160 ATHLETES, COACHES AND CARERS. Meantime mainstream sport became more professional. Football codes grew and became big business and players (that weren't born with an intellectual disability) are regularly highlighted in the media for their antisocial behaviour. The ASC whose slogan is ""sport for all Australians"" believe that National Sporting Organisations should provide their sport for all Australians, including indigenous, women and those with a disability. But they fund these organisations based on the number of medals they win at an Olympic Games.
3. Strengthen pathways from junior sport to grassroots community sport right through to elite and professional sport
The ASC talk about Disability Action Plans and Sports Connect and provide funding for National Sports Organisations to develop such plans but they virtually ignore sports organisations for people with a disability (intellectual, blind, deaf) and the fact that we have excellent volunteers who are accredited coaches and provide coaching and care in a range of sports. NSOs do not provide opportunities for people with an intellectual disability. They do not understand it, some are afraid of it and they do not know who to talk to about it. Some state organisations are exceptions hand have very inclusive practices (Little Athletics in NSW and VIC are good examples and at that level inclusive sport really works. Equally local clubs, eg Ballarat Cricket Club run an excellent program where people with an intellectual disability are accepted, included and catered for. COMMUNITY SPORT - the current Active After Schools Program does not cater for people with an intellectual disability. If anything it totally discriminates against them bearing in mind the transport already described. Some Special Olympics programs were registered as ""providers"" but were deregistered because the activity had to happen within school hours. They need somewhere to go and make friends get encouragement and be part of a team or a place where they feel they belong, are not being judged and expected to be 'normal'. Currently Special Olympics has 46 clubs in 6 states and the ACT. It offers year round training in each club and runs 14 sport for young and old, individuals or teams, winter and summer. All sports are supervised by coaches accredited in their sport by their National organisation. COMPETITION: It is often said that competition drives Special Olympics and in Australia there are approximately 100 competitions annually. Our target is to double this in the next four years and to ensure that competition in their chosen sport is an opportunity for every athlete, regardless of where they live. STATE : A pinnacle in the Special Olympics calendar which takes place every 4 years. Athletes train in their chosen sport, compete in qualifying competition to become eligible for selection and then put on their state uniform and travel to an event that is staged with all the Olympic ceremonies and traditions. NATIONAL : the next such event is scheduled for Adelaide 2010 when 1000 athletes, 350 coaches and carers and thousands of families will enjoy a week of sport and celebration. INTERNATIONAL: From this National Games, Special Olympics will select the athletes what will represent Australia on the World Stage in 2011 in Athens. The Special Olympics World Summers Games is a spectacle equal in size to the Olympic Games in terms of field of play participants. For example in 2007 165 countries participated in Special Olymipcs in Shanghai as compared to 205 countries in the Olympics in Beijing or 165 in the Paralympics.
4. Maintain Australia's cutting edge approach to sports science, research and technology
No response
5. Identify opportunities to increase and diversify the funding base for sport through corporate sponsorship, media and any recommended reforms, such as enhancing the effectiveness of the Australian Sports Foundation
No response
Page last updated: 04 November, 2008