Birmingham CWG - Day 1 (Tuesday August 2nd)

[Ursus]

Olivia Breen's father ran a sustained campaign against Hahn about 4 or 5 years ago where he cast doubt (to put it mildly) on Hahn's T38 classification for Cerebral Palsy. It didn't get anywhere but caused Hahn a great deal of anguish.

Thanks. Yes I’d seen that, but wasn’t sure of the ins and outs. There was an interview with him where he said that he’d done everything through official channels and only saw Hahn a couple of times a year on the circuit. I’ve no idea of all the events / timeline in that particular case so can’t comment, but more generally it’s easy to see how classifications can become very contentious.

[Chafford1]

Most annoying when you attempt to amend a post, it tells you it is unapproved and cannot be seen by others.

The other points I made: the CGs should have a mixture of top athletes and those experiencing a big games for the first time. We seem to have lost the latter group of athletes.

I also noted that it was unfortunate that most people had left the stadium by the start of Hanna Cockcroft's race. Possibly not a good idea to put two para races at the end of the session - most spectators don't appear to be interested.

[trickstat]

If it wasn't a championship you might get away with it because you could then heavily promote Hannah C being in it.

[Ursus]

I noticed that scheduling too and thought it was daft.

Bar the Paralympics (here), para sport in isolation is simply not a big spectator draw. You can debate the reasons and rights and wrongs but that’s the reality and I think it would take a lot to shift the dial.

I suspect that women’s football may be in a similar boat - the Euros were fantastic, but after an initial bounce I doubt that WSL attendances will show a sustained increase. Participation might, but I’m also doubtful there.

[MysteryBrick]

Agreed on para sport (and it really does very little for me most of the time), but I suspect women's football will actually see a boost due to pricing and families, and more's the better!

[jjimbojames]

Yes…on a smaller scale, after the ladies hockey (2016) and netball (2018) wins, people said those sports were going to transform into mainstream…fast forward a few years and neither sport had all matches shown on iPlayer, let alone cutting away from other sports…one off celebrations don’t tend to translate without sustained efforts. Football does at least have more money…but will they spend it?