The story might make you smile. However, there is nothing funny about it. Cycling, a regular at the Paralympic Games, does not appear in the list of the first 16 sports selected by the IPC, the International Paralympic Committee, for the Tokyo Games in 2020. Forgotten? Excluded? Out of the loop? Nothing of the sort. The truth, brought to light by the Swiss media, turns out to be more embarrassing: the UCI would have simply missed the deadline of July 28, 2014 to submit the candidacy file to the IPC. Cycling therefore temporarily disappeared from the Tokyo Paralympic Games program for not having officially applied.
The news can make people cringe. It is, fortunately, not irreversible. Cycling will have another chance to slip through the door at an upcoming IPC meeting, scheduled for January 30 to February 1, 2015 in Abu Dhabi. Until then, it appears as a “reserve”, in the same way as judo and fencing, other regulars at the Paralympic Games, or even para-taekwondo, which is knocking on the door of the Games for a first entry. In total, eight sports can still hope to appear in 2020 at the Tokyo Games. But the IPC will not keep more than seven, at best, its rules specifying that a maximum of 23 disciplines can appear on the Games program (there were only 20 at the London Games in 2012).
Visibly embarrassed by its clumsiness, the International Cycling Union reacted without delay, via a press release. “The International Cycling Union will work closely with the IPC and its governing council in the coming months,” it reads. The UCI remains fully committed to the promotion of para-cycling and expects high expectations from its dialogue with the IPC to contribute through cycling to the continued development of the Paralympic Games.” Nice formula.
If cycling cries, badminton laughs out loud. Candidate for entry into the Paralympic program, where it has never yet been admitted, the discipline was selected by the IPC in the list of the first 16 called up, in the same way as athletics, rowing, swimming or triathlon. Proof of the progression of a sport which is gaining followers, among able-bodied and disabled athletes.