Fundraising duo set to complete 1,200 marathons between them in Belfast this weekend

Glasgow Commonwealth Games in ‘existential crisis' after marathon snub

The National

3 days ago

The National

Glasgow Commonwealth Games in ‘existential crisis' after marathon snub

He said he was starting to wonder if the organisers of the sporting extravaganza were even capable of organising an egg and spoon race, due to what appeared to be a 'lamentable lack of efficiency, ambition and initiative'. Canavan's concerns are growing after his most recent letter to the Commonwealth Games Federation has not even had the 'courtesy' of an acknowledgment. 'With that level of incompetence, I fear that, in the longer term, the Commonwealth Games is facing an existential crisis,' he told the Sunday National. READ MORE: 'F***ing slags': Oasis take aim at Edinburgh Council chiefs in first Murrayfield gig Having run 15 marathons in the past, Canavan was shocked to find there were no plans for one in the Games next year. 'It beggars belief,' he said. 'The marathon is one of the most prestigious and iconic events in the history of world athletics, dating back to the 5th century BC.' He arranged meetings with some of the organisers who gave him a 'polite hearing' but stood by their decision. Canavan said he then decided 'to swallow his republican loyalties' by writing to the King in his capacity as Patron of the Commonwealth Games. Co-signatories of the letter included former first minister of Scotland, Henry McLeish; former lord provost and lord lieutenant of the City of Glasgow, Alex Mosson; former Commonwealth Games marathon runner Ross Houston; a press officer for Team Scotland in a previous Commonwealth Games and several MSPs. 'After waiting several months for a reply, I had to chase up some flunkey in Buckingham Palace before I eventually got a letter advising me to contact the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF),' said Canavan. He then wrote to the CGF's chief executive, Katie Sadleir, but had to contact her office several times before eventually getting a response. In it, she said road events such as the marathon were being excluded to 'reduce operational complexity, ensure significant savings in transport and security costs and minimise the disruption for the general public by avoiding road closures'. However, Canavan wrote back suggesting the marathon could be self-financing if it were a mass participation event with the elite athletes representing their countries starting before the mass participants who would pay a fee to enter. 'Thousands of runners would be willing to pay to participate in such a prestigious event which could also attract corporate sponsorship,' he said, adding in his marathon running days he had never heard any serious complaint about disruption. He said if the CGF were unable or unwilling to organise a marathon, they should ask the organisers of the London Marathon, the Edinburgh Marathon or the Great Scottish Run to stage the marathon for Glasgow. 'I sent that suggestion to the CGF six weeks ago and so far, I have not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement,' said Canavan. As the MP who formed a parliamentary group in order to cut through government red tape which was threatening to strangle the London Marathon in its early days, Canavan said he was disappointed in the lack of interest from MPs and MSPs in a Glasgow Commonwealth Games marathon. READ MORE: 'Absolutely crazy': Scottish jazz artist scores new film by Hollywood director 'When I wrote about this matter to all the Glasgow MSPs and MPs and the leader of Glasgow City Council, most of them did not even bother to reply,' he said. 'They do not seem to realise that they are missing a golden opportunity to showcase Glasgow and Scotland to a multi-million TV audience throughout the world. 'As for the people who are supposed to be organising the Commonwealth Games, I am beginning to wonder if they are capable of organising an egg and spoon race.' A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council said: 'The council is not part of the Games organising company and doesn't have a role in determining the sporting programme.' A Commonwealth Sport spokesperson said: 'We are inspired and excited by the innovative approach taken by organisers to deliver Glasgow 2026 in record time. While road events won't feature in 2026, we are confident they will return in future editions of the Games.'

The Paralympics are coming to LA. But has the US done enough to guarantee success?

The Guardian

4 days ago

The Guardian

The Paralympics are coming to LA. But has the US done enough to guarantee success?

Although he came up just short in one of the most thrilling events of last weekend's US Track and Field Outdoor Championships, Miguel Jimenez-Vergara could still take satisfaction in a crowd-pleasing performance. Competing for the first time at the famous Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, the 24-year-old waged a tense tactical war over 5000m with the US's fastest wheelchair racers. Entering the final lap, Jimenez-Vergara vaporized a tightly packed field with a ferocious acceleration that energized the crowd. Only one competitor could rise to the challenge: reigning Paralympic gold medalist Daniel Romanchuk. Jimenez-Vergara still led by a wheel as they rocketed through the final turn at more than 20 mph; Romanchuk caught him in the final 50m and won by a tenth of a second. It was an exhilarating show, and worthy of the big-league setting. But Jimenez-Vergara rejected attempts to spin it as a triumph. 'I just want to win,' he said. 'I'm not here to soak up the fans or soak up the atmosphere. I know you probably want me to say I'm excited to be at Hayward and get more visibility [for disabled athletes]. And we do need more eyes on us. But for me, I'll race in the parking lot. I just want to beat the guy next to me. I just want to be the best.' That sums up both the promise and the pitfalls of the weekend's historic championship. For the first time, USA Track and Field showcased America's Paralympic talent on the sport's biggest stage, side by side with their better-known, better-paid Olympic teammates. It's a clear win for parasports equity, one that recognizes disabled competitors as supremely gifted athletes rather than novelty acts. But it's a largely symbolic victory, and glaringly overdue. Achieving the type of success Jimenez-Vergara hungers for – global dominance in paratrack – will require more than splashy gestures toward inclusion. It will take a level of money and commitment far beyond what Team USA has previously invested in parasports. There's urgency to post a high medal count when the Paralympics come to US soil in Los Angeles three years from now. But time is short, and talk is cheap. 'Seeing the integration actually happen is really cool,' says sprinter Jarryd Wallace, a four-time Paralympian and longtime advocate for equity. 'It shows how much growth there has been. But in order to make the heights climb even higher, we've got to keep asking questions. No one really knows the right direction yet. We're finding out what the needs are, what the resources and opportunities are. And I think it's going to catapult us to places we've never seen US parasport before.' The places we have seen US parasport before can generously be described as third-rate. Until last year, national championships and Paralympic trials were routinely staged at high school and community-college tracks that lacked accessibility accommodations for the athletes, media hookups for journalists, and comfort amenities for the public. The stands (if there were any) were inevitably empty. The tracks themselves were often an embarrassment. 'The venues haven't been so great in the past,' says Tatyana McFadden, one of US paratrack's most recognizable stars and the winner of 22 Paralympic track and field medals, a US record. 'Long-jump pits have not been the right size. There have been holes in the track and not enough water for the athletes.' The 2024 national meet and Paralympic trials were held at top-notch facilities – but only after Paralympians filed a formal grievance following the 2023 national championships. Going forward, it'll be Hayward Field every year. 'It's nice when you can just go out and compete without worrying if there's a divot in your lane,' says McFadden. 'It's good to be treated like elite athletes. We deserve this.' US paraathletes also deserve the same pay as their non-disabled peers, and they've made some progress on that front – since 2021, Paralympic medal bonuses have been equivalent to Olympic bonuses (they were one-fifth as large previously). But performance-based compensation in other major para events continues to lag. So do stipends for travel, training, equipment, and living expenses. Given their relative dearth of resources, US paratrack athletes have compiled an admirable record of international success. While they haven't matched the preeminence of their Olympic comrades – who have led the world in track medals (overall and gold) at every Olympics since 1992 – US Paralympians have brought home 212 track medals this century, more than every nation except China. They hold dozens of world records. It's an impressive ledger, but other countries have been catching up or surging ahead in recent cycles. Since 2000, China has won twice as many Paralympic track medals as the United States. Brazil has invested heavily in parasports since hosting the 2016 Paralympics; last summer it nearly matched Team USA in overall track medals and won the same number of golds. Great Britain, Russia, and European countries have vastly expanded their paraathletic recruitment and training initiatives. And nearly every nation has unified their para and able-bodied track programs into a single governing body – a step the United States took belatedly this year, when US Track and Field absorbed the paratrack wing. That organizational merger formalized a de facto fusion that's been happening for decades. US Paralympic and Olympic athletes routinely train and travel together, share coaches and sponsors, and regard each other as peers. 'I moved to the Olympic Training Center in 2005, and Al Joyner was my coach,' says April Holmes, a trailblazing Paralympic sprinter who now serves as interim CEO of SafeSport USA. 'I trained with all of his [Olympic] athletes. There was already a conversation back then – 'Why aren't our Nationals together?' The administration finally caught up to what was happening on the track.' 'The rest of the world has been doing it, and we should be doing it too,' adds shotputter Josh Cinnamo, a world record-holder and member of Team USA's Athletes Commission. 'If we're going to speak like we're one organization, then let's be one organization.' Nobody in the US wants to see China dominate Team USA on the Paralympic track in three years. But it may take the Americans longer than that to catch up. While top-tier US paraathletes such as McFadden, Romanchuk, Ezra Frech, Hunter Woodhall, and Brittni Mason can compete with anyone in the world, America's talent pipeline is nowhere near as productive on the Paralympic side as on the Olympic side. 'We are missing a bridge between junior level competition and the international level,' says retired Paralympian Amanda McGrory, a seven-time medalist who now provides color commentary on NBC Universal's paratrack coverage. 'After you win your state or regional championship, there's nowhere to go. Where do you find a coach? How do you make that jump from high school or collegiate competition to the world-championship level? There hasn't been a lot of direction for most people. That's where we really need some support.' Jimenez-Vergara illustrates the obstacles athletes face. After piling up national championships and international medals in his teens, he floundered for several years, training on his own with sporadic coaching. 'I was trying to get to the Tokyo Paralympics, but I didn't know how,' he says. 'It just wasn't happening. I just didn't have the speed.' He might have remained stuck if his old junior coach hadn't brokered an introduction to US Paralympic track coach Joaquim Cruz. That eventually led to a berth at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, which made an immediate and dramatic impact. 'I stopped viewing myself as just a wheelchair racer,' Jimenez-Vergara explains. 'Being around all the sprinters, the throwers, the jumpers, I realized that I am a track athlete. That meant I had to act like one. I had to start doing the track things these other guys had been doing for years and years.' He took advantage of the personal trainer, gym, nutritionist, sports psychologist, and other forms of support he'd always lacked access to. The effects became clear in 2023, when Jimenez-Vergara won a gold and two silvers at the Parapan American Games, a standard proving ground for emerging US Paralympians. This season he's staged a running back-and-forth duel with his one-time idol, Romanchuk, typified by the tight finish in last weekend's 5000m. By 2028, he may be ready to challenge for a Paralympic podium. There are plenty of prospects like Jimenez-Vergara who are still out there floundering, and the USATF hasn't yet built a system for finding and developing them. It will take an aggressive recruiting blitz for the US to have any chance of running down the Chinese. 'USA Track and Field has an established model of how to identify talent and get them to the next level,' McGrory says. 'And I think that's replicable on the Paralympic side. China has done a really good job at discovering and developing young talent. It makes them hard to catch. But that's where USA Track and Field can help.' 'USATF just needs to do what they do well,' adds Wallace. 'They just need to lean in to who they are.' Bringing the Para Track Nationals to Hayward Field was a necessary first step, but not a sufficient one. Team USA still has a lot of race left to run. Larry Borowsky is the editor of Amplitude, a national lifestyle magazine for amputees.

The Guardian

4 days ago

The Guardian

The Paralympics are coming to LA. But has the US done enough to guarantee success?

Although he came up just short in one of the most thrilling events of last weekend's US Track and Field Outdoor Championships, Miguel Jimenez-Vergara could still take satisfaction in a crowd-pleasing performance. Competing for the first time at the famous Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, the 24-year-old waged a tense tactical war over 5000m with the US's fastest wheelchair racers. Entering the final lap, Jimenez-Vergara vaporized a tightly packed field with a ferocious acceleration that energized the crowd. Only one competitor could rise to the challenge: reigning Paralympic gold medalist Daniel Romanchuk. Jimenez-Vergara still led by a wheel as they rocketed through the final turn at more than 20 mph; Romanchuk caught him in the final 50m and won by a tenth of a second. It was an exhilarating show, and worthy of the big-league setting. But Jimenez-Vergara rejected attempts to spin it as a triumph. 'I just want to win,' he said. 'I'm not here to soak up the fans or soak up the atmosphere. I know you probably want me to say I'm excited to be at Hayward and get more visibility [for disabled athletes]. And we do need more eyes on us. But for me, I'll race in the parking lot. I just want to beat the guy next to me. I just want to be the best.' That sums up both the promise and the pitfalls of the weekend's historic championship. For the first time, USA Track and Field showcased America's Paralympic talent on the sport's biggest stage, side by side with their better-known, better-paid Olympic teammates. It's a clear win for parasports equity, one that recognizes disabled competitors as supremely gifted athletes rather than novelty acts. But it's a largely symbolic victory, and glaringly overdue. Achieving the type of success Jimenez-Vergara hungers for – global dominance in paratrack – will require more than splashy gestures toward inclusion. It will take a level of money and commitment far beyond what Team USA has previously invested in parasports. There's urgency to post a high medal count when the Paralympics come to US soil in Los Angeles three years from now. But time is short, and talk is cheap. 'Seeing the integration actually happen is really cool,' says sprinter Jarryd Wallace, a four-time Paralympian and longtime advocate for equity. 'It shows how much growth there has been. But in order to make the heights climb even higher, we've got to keep asking questions. No one really knows the right direction yet. We're finding out what the needs are, what the resources and opportunities are. And I think it's going to catapult us to places we've never seen US parasport before.' The places we have seen US parasport before can generously be described as third-rate. Until last year, national championships and Paralympic trials were routinely staged at high school and community-college tracks that lacked accessibility accommodations for the athletes, media hookups for journalists, and comfort amenities for the public. The stands (if there were any) were inevitably empty. The tracks themselves were often an embarrassment. 'The venues haven't been so great in the past,' says Tatyana McFadden, one of US paratrack's most recognizable stars and the winner of 22 Paralympic track and field medals, a US record. 'Long-jump pits have not been the right size. There have been holes in the track and not enough water for the athletes.' The 2024 national meet and Paralympic trials were held at top-notch facilities – but only after Paralympians filed a formal grievance following the 2023 national championships. Going forward, it'll be Hayward Field every year. 'It's nice when you can just go out and compete without worrying if there's a divot in your lane,' says McFadden. 'It's good to be treated like elite athletes. We deserve this.' US paraathletes also deserve the same pay as their non-disabled peers, and they've made some progress on that front – since 2021, Paralympic medal bonuses have been equivalent to Olympic bonuses (they were one-fifth as large previously). But performance-based compensation in other major para events continues to lag. So do stipends for travel, training, equipment, and living expenses. Given their relative dearth of resources, US paratrack athletes have compiled an admirable record of international success. While they haven't matched the preeminence of their Olympic comrades – who have led the world in track medals (overall and gold) at every Olympics since 1992 – US Paralympians have brought home 212 track medals this century, more than every nation except China. They hold dozens of world records. It's an impressive ledger, but other countries have been catching up or surging ahead in recent cycles. Since 2000, China has won twice as many Paralympic track medals as the United States. Brazil has invested heavily in parasports since hosting the 2016 Paralympics; last summer it nearly matched Team USA in overall track medals and won the same number of golds. Great Britain, Russia, and European countries have vastly expanded their paraathletic recruitment and training initiatives. And nearly every nation has unified their para and able-bodied track programs into a single governing body – a step the United States took belatedly this year, when US Track and Field absorbed the paratrack wing. That organizational merger formalized a de facto fusion that's been happening for decades. US Paralympic and Olympic athletes routinely train and travel together, share coaches and sponsors, and regard each other as peers. 'I moved to the Olympic Training Center in 2005, and Al Joyner was my coach,' says April Holmes, a trailblazing Paralympic sprinter who now serves as interim CEO of SafeSport USA. 'I trained with all of his [Olympic] athletes. There was already a conversation back then – 'Why aren't our Nationals together?' The administration finally caught up to what was happening on the track.' 'The rest of the world has been doing it, and we should be doing it too,' adds shotputter Josh Cinnamo, a world record-holder and member of Team USA's Athletes Commission. 'If we're going to speak like we're one organization, then let's be one organization.' Nobody in the US wants to see China dominate Team USA on the Paralympic track in three years. But it may take the Americans longer than that to catch up. While top-tier US paraathletes such as McFadden, Romanchuk, Ezra Frech, Hunter Woodhall, and Brittni Mason can compete with anyone in the world, America's talent pipeline is nowhere near as productive on the Paralympic side as on the Olympic side. 'We are missing a bridge between junior level competition and the international level,' says retired Paralympian Amanda McGrory, a seven-time medalist who now provides color commentary on NBC Universal's paratrack coverage. 'After you win your state or regional championship, there's nowhere to go. Where do you find a coach? How do you make that jump from high school or collegiate competition to the world-championship level? There hasn't been a lot of direction for most people. That's where we really need some support.' Jimenez-Vergara illustrates the obstacles athletes face. After piling up national championships and international medals in his teens, he floundered for several years, training on his own with sporadic coaching. 'I was trying to get to the Tokyo Paralympics, but I didn't know how,' he says. 'It just wasn't happening. I just didn't have the speed.' He might have remained stuck if his old junior coach hadn't brokered an introduction to US Paralympic track coach Joaquim Cruz. That eventually led to a berth at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, which made an immediate and dramatic impact. 'I stopped viewing myself as just a wheelchair racer,' Jimenez-Vergara explains. 'Being around all the sprinters, the throwers, the jumpers, I realized that I am a track athlete. That meant I had to act like one. I had to start doing the track things these other guys had been doing for years and years.' He took advantage of the personal trainer, gym, nutritionist, sports psychologist, and other forms of support he'd always lacked access to. The effects became clear in 2023, when Jimenez-Vergara won a gold and two silvers at the Parapan American Games, a standard proving ground for emerging US Paralympians. This season he's staged a running back-and-forth duel with his one-time idol, Romanchuk, typified by the tight finish in last weekend's 5000m. By 2028, he may be ready to challenge for a Paralympic podium. There are plenty of prospects like Jimenez-Vergara who are still out there floundering, and the USATF hasn't yet built a system for finding and developing them. It will take an aggressive recruiting blitz for the US to have any chance of running down the Chinese. 'USA Track and Field has an established model of how to identify talent and get them to the next level,' McGrory says. 'And I think that's replicable on the Paralympic side. China has done a really good job at discovering and developing young talent. It makes them hard to catch. But that's where USA Track and Field can help.' 'USATF just needs to do what they do well,' adds Wallace. 'They just need to lean in to who they are.' Bringing the Para Track Nationals to Hayward Field was a necessary first step, but not a sufficient one. Team USA still has a lot of race left to run. Larry Borowsky is the editor of Amplitude, a national lifestyle magazine for amputees.

Fundraising duo set to complete 1,200 marathons between them in Belfast this weekend

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Glasgow Commonwealth Games in ‘existential crisis' after marathon snub

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The Paralympics are coming to LA. But has the US done enough to guarantee success?

Fundraising duo set to complete 1,200 marathons between them in Belfast this weekend

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Glasgow Commonwealth Games in ‘existential crisis' after marathon snub

The Paralympics are coming to LA. But has the US done enough to guarantee success?

The Paralympics are coming to LA. But has the US done enough to guarantee success?

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