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| TX: 02.02.07 - Prince Edward and the Paralympics PRESENTER: LIZ BARCLAY |
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| THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. Barclay Now his Royal Highness Prince Edward is the patron of the British Paralympic Association. Our own Peter White has been following the preparations of the British Paralympic Team in the run up to the next games in Beijing in 2008. So when he got the opportunity to talk to the prince about his experiences of working with the team in the past he couldn't possibly turn it down. We let him out of the studio to go to Buckingham Palace where the two had a tête-à-tête in a rather echoey room. Prince Edward I have to say that one of the best experiences I had was my first encounter with disabled skiers, the sit skiers, for those people who don't understand that. It's a mono sky which basically you sit on, so for a wheelchair bound person you actually sit on the ski and then you have short poles with little skis on the outside of the poles like sort of outriggers. And frankly once you're on one of these sit skis you are as free and as able as any person on two skis - it is quite extraordinary what these skiers can achieve. White Your Royal Highness, what were your first impressions of the Paralympics, what do you remember from those Barcelona Games? Prince Edward I remember quite a lot actually, I was only there for a very brief time. It was dominated largely by the swimmers who were a fairly irreverent lot. In fact I'm glad to say that most disabled athletes are fairly irreverent. Anyway the swimmers all delighted in giving me a T-shirt which said on the front: Do a swimmer a good turn - and on the back it said - Give them a bonk. Now of course that requires a certain amount of explanation to anybody who doesn't know Paralympic sport. If you're blind you can't see the end of the pool, so they need to have a friend standing at the end of the pool with a long pole and a tennis ball over the end of it and as they get within range you have to bonk them on the head so they know to turn otherwise they run into the end of the wall. Swimmers take a great delight in trying to find any sort of use of that particular expression, usually to cause maximum embarrassment to anybody they possibly can. White Some people argue that we focus on disability quite well at this sort of level - at Paralympic sport - we hear about it every four years but that that doesn't say very much about the disabled person perhaps who's living on a very low income, who goes to a day centre everyday, that in amongst all the excitement of the Paralympics the ordinary lives of disabled people are perhaps getting a bit lost in this country, what do you feel about the kind of deal disabled people get in the UK? Prince Edward It's a very difficult - that's a very difficult question to answer in the sense that as with any major event in the sort of major sporting event then you're always going to focus on the best and the most able. If it helps to improve the awareness of disability, indeed the awareness of the ability of people with disabilities, if you see what I mean, then I think that that's what it's doing. I mean given the awareness that the Paralympics have created, especially in this country, I mean it's - the support levels, the viewing figures for disabled sport has always been impressive, it's always taken the broadcasters by a huge surprise. And I think that's got to be good. Now if that spills over into the rest of the community then that's got to have a positive effect. White Despite Britain's success in Paralympic sport over a long period of time it still struggles to get the financial support it needs and we had the chair of the British Paralympic Association on the programme not very long ago, saying it's harder for us to get sponsorship, do you see your role as being able to help with that? Prince Edward If I can help with that then so be it, but it's just one aspect of it. All sport suffers, I mean every sport would love to have a little bit more if they possibly can and it's trying to make the most of what's there. And if we can continue to make a good story and a good case then hopefully there'll be more sport in the future. White I think as far as the public's aware there are no direct experiences of disability in the immediate Royal Family, I wonder what you - you feel you know about living with disability? Prince Edward I don't, to be perfectly honest, I've met a great many disabled people and I've made one or two programmes about disabled people and been filmed with a number of different organisations, including the Queen Elizabeth Foundation. So I think for many years I've been aware of the problems, the hurdles, that have got to be overcome, especially in the domestic environment. I'm not too sure that all the strategies and initiatives that are undertaken now are necessarily all the best ways of going about it. Putting people's backs up is never a good way of trying to get things to happen. But from the experiences also that I've had with - certainly with the Commonwealth Games over the years is okay we can't have a level of disabled sports men and women taking part as we can within the Paralympics, for instance, it's not capable of doing that but at least if all the venues that are built for the Commonwealth Games and indeed for the Olympics are made accessible not just for the disabled sports men and women but also for spectators as well then at least there is a legacy there that in years to come countries will be able to help more disabled people to have access to sport both as participants and as spectators. White You mention legacy, do you feel that the Paralympics are going to make a real difference to all disabled people in the lead up to 2012 perhaps? Prince Edward Well unfortunately because it is only the London Olympics and the IOC are very keen that it should be only in London it means that there are only going to be a certain number of venues affected by it. But again if it makes people more aware of disabled sport and disabled sports facilities in the country generally then so much the better, if more people are thinking about it and talking about it then excellent. White Do you have one abiding memory of disability sport, something that sums it up for you? Prince Edward It's always difficult - I've watched quite a lot of sport and I have to say that every time I watch it I'm always absolutely staggered and amazed. I mean wheelchair basketball is always a thoroughly exciting and exhilarating sport. I mean I tried to play basketball when I was at school and was absolutely hopeless at it. The thought of actually trying to wheel yourself around a court in a chair, as well as control the ball, and shoot into a basket, which is still at exactly the same height as it is for an able bodied person, never ceases to absolutely amaze me. And it's always an exhilarating sport. And there are so many more subtleties to the tactics of the game - making sure that you've got the right points in terms of the disabilities on there. And the gamesmanship that goes on between the coaches, it's just - if you're sitting next to somebody who really knows the game it's just the most entertaining thing ever. White Your Royal Highness, thank you very much indeed. Barclay Peter White talking to Prince Edward. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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