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Read MoreTechnology for Paralympians is worlds apart
How much does a Paralympics-standard wheelchair cost? Go on, have a guess.
You’ll probably be surprised to learn that a top-flight wheelchair can cost £100,000, according to a report by Channel 4 News. Meanwhile, a state-of-the-art prosthethic limb can cost up to £50,000.
It’s little wonder then that athletes in developing countries, where there is so little funding, struggle to compete with athletes from richer countries.
The London Paralympics is bigger than any that has gone before, with more athletes competing from a greater number of countries – 165, which is 19 more than in Beijing. Better still, 15 countries will be making their Paralympic Games début, including the Gambia, Cameroon, Liberia and Mozambique.
However, some countries that one might imagine would be a force to be reckoned with, will be under-represented. Cambodia is an impoverished, sports-mad country with the highest number of amputees per capita in the world – around 25,000 people have lost limbs to land mines laid during its war-ravaged past.
Women Wheelchair Basketball, Credit: CNVLD
Van Vun, Camdbodia’s preeminent wheelchair racer, had his sights on London. The 26-year-old athlete, who fell victim to a bout of polio at three-years-old, did not receive his first wheelchair until he was 15 years old. He now uses a second-hand racing wheelchair donated by Canada, and has been fortunate enough to train in Australia.
Van Vun won two silver medals at the 2011 ASEAN Para Games in Indonesia, but this achievement fell short of the qualifying standard for London.
“If we can’t take part, we’ll never know the ability of athletes from big countries or learn from their training,” Van Vun has said. If poorer countries are not well represented at the Games they will fall into a spiral of sporting decline, he warned.
Sadly, none of Van Vun’s compatriots qualified for the London Games either, leaving the nation’s hopes of glory dependent on a ‘wildcard’ entry, gifted by the Paralympics’ governing body, the IPC. (The IPC gives out only a maximum of two wildcards per country. In total, 61 wildcards were given out, 50 of those to developing countries.)
As a result of their one wildcard, Cambodia is sending 28-year-old 100m and 200m below-the-knee amputee sprinter Thin Seng Hon. “I don’t expect to win a medal,” she has said, given her £1,500 J-shaped running blade is not specifically designed for sprinting and there are far more expensive and more modern versions available. Friends donated the money to buy the running blade for Thin, who earns £76 a month working full-time at a souvenir stall.
Cambodia has many disabled sports enthusiasts. Image courtesy CNVLD
