Paris 2024 Messages from the CEO
Day 4
Kia ora and bonjour from Paris.
Double medal day for the NZ Paralympic Team taking our tally to two Silver and one Bronze. Huge congratulations to Paralympians #211 Danielle Aitchison (Para athletics) and #222 Nicole Murray (Para cycling).
It was silver for Danielle in the 200m T36 at Stade de France in front of another capacity crowd. And for Nicole, a bronze in the 3000m Individual Pursuit C5. Great performances from both Paralympians, and both with still more events to follow on the programme.
Outside of action happening in Paris, it was a big Shooting Para sport kind of day, as together with members of the Games Delivery Team and Media Team, I travelled to Châteauroux to support all three of our Shooting Para sport Team – Paralympians #148 Michael Johnson and #204 Greg Reid, and Para athlete on debut Neelam O’Neill – who were in action today.
Greg and Neelam were first in action in the Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 event. For Neelam it was 21st place in qualifying and Greg finishing in 31st place, meaning neither were able to progress to the final. Next up it was Michael competing in the Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH2 event. Despite a strong second half of series, Michael finished in 20th position to go with his earlier 5th place finish in the final of the Mixed 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2.
It was great to connect with more family and friends of our NZ Paralympic Team, who like our Paralympians, have travelled so far to be on this journey with them.
Getting to the Châteauroux venue was a slightly more complex process with everyone taking slightly different paths. For our Team travelling from the Paralympic Village in Paris, it involved a direct bus shuttle around 4 hours in each direction. For me it involved a 30 minute taxi followed by a 2+ hour direct train journey in each direction, initially departing Paris at 0730 hrs.
And this was the planned route for our Media and Content Liaison Paralympian #173 Rebecca McDonald and our Team Photographer Fiona, who were scheduled to depart at 0530 hrs, only to discover that nobody was available to use the wheelchair accessible hoist to enable Rebecca to board the train. So after a very early start, the Team then had to occupy another two hours at the train station, with nothing open to even grab a coffee, to wait for the next scheduled train.
Despite the efforts of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee to plan for and support accessible transport, such as through the fleet of fully ramp accessible Toyota commuter and electric shuttle vehicles, sometimes there is a gap in providing full service delivery when connecting different modes of transport and service providers. Whist everyone was very apologetic, and Rebecca was even asked for her autograph from one volunteer, this overall experience is a great example why creating basic services such as transport need to follow universal design principles, so that nobody requires assistance to be able to access a mode of transport such as a train. Now wouldn’t that be Something To Talk About…
That’s a wrap from a great medal day for the NZ Paralympic Team as we look ahead to the start of Para athlete Matthew Britz’s first Games campaign as the Singles competition in Para Table tennis gets underway, whilst Paralympian #208 Will Stedman long jumps into the final of the first of his three Para athletics events at Paris 2024.
And I would like to set everyone a challenge – talk to someone you haven’t already about the NZ Paralympic Team and Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, and in turn challenge them to tune into the coverage on TVNZ1 or TVNZ+, or to follow one (or all!) of PNZs social channels. And when they do, ask them to challenge one other person to do the same. Pretty soon we’ll have the whole of Aotearoa New Zealand ready to #TalkAboutThis and support the Team as we enter the final week of the Games.
