Why the Paralympic grassroots stats are wrong

On Friday, the Sport and Recreation Alliance revealed results of a study which suggest that participation in Paralympic grassroots sport has barely risen since the London Paralympic games. But if this study is accurate, why haven’t we seen an increase in disability sport?

This study has been dismissed by the chief executive of the British Paralympic Association, Tim Hollingsworth who said "There is still a long way to go, but just four months on from the Games it's wrong to suggest nothing has changed."

I think it is worth pointing out that immediately following the close of the Paralympics the weather took a turn for the worse and we had enough rain to make 2012 the second wettest year on record in the UK, only surpassed by 2000.

To me it seems incredibly unlikely that people would start taking up sport in such disgusting, and I struggle to imagine that many disabled people, who are often made vulnerable by their impairments, would want to take up a new sport.

I would also note that many of clubs surveyed may not advertise the fact that they facilitate to disabled participants and in fact the study reported that only 24% of the sports clubs that were used to compile the data had all of the required facilities to cater to participants of Para-sport, a figure which completely disproves the findings of the report

Overall I struggle to believe the findings of this study, it was created much too hastily and didn't even survey clubs that will accept disabled athletes, in July I think we will start to see the real legacy of the Paralympics when it comes to grassroots sport, but for now the only legacy we can measure is how life for disabled people has improved since the world was stunned at the achievements of Paraltmpians in the Summer of 2012.