Thank you very much.
I think they probably need all the help and encouragement and coaching and facilities that able-bodied athletes need, and then some. One is starting a little further back, I think, with disabled people.
The key reasons we're emphasizing the Paralympics, as I tried to say a little earlier on, is to do two things. One is to expand the horizons of possibility for disabled people. Many of them would simply not consider the prospect of competing in sport, at any level. Seeing this on television, perhaps having contact with some of the Paralympic athletes, will expand that horizon a bit. Second, and equally important, is it will give broader society a better sense of what disabled athletes, and indeed disabled people, can do. We hope that the chemistry between those two things will give a bit more motivation for the disabled to come forward.
Sport is such a good avenue. It not only contributes to physical well-being, but it involves them in teams, in community. It breaks the isolation that so often surrounds disabled people in their lives. They live in isolated apartments and this brings you into a broader community. Also, it's making people more aware, perhaps making coaches more aware, that it isn't just able-bodied people who respond well to discipline and instruction; anyone can.
We do hope that the Paralympics will be a showcase for what disabled athletes can do. As I say, I've seen up close and personally the quite extraordinary physical condition that self-discipline and hard training allows disabled athletes to reach. It's a catalyst, as well. It's not just a display, but a catalyst, both for the disabled to come forward themselves, and for people to reach out a bit more and provide some more facilities.
Thank you for the question.