Hail the Paralympians!

3 December is the International Day of People with Disability. I celebrated it a few days in advance with a reception at the Residence for Romania’s paralympic athletes who will be going to London next year.

Romania is sending its biggest ever team to the Paralympic Games in London. Whereas in Beijing there were only five athletes from Romania, in London there will be at least fifteen competing in swimming, cycling, table tennis, wheelchair tennis, powerlifting and athletics.

That is a testament to the advances made by the paralympic movement in recent years, not least thanks to the efforts of my fellow Scot Sally Wood-Lamont. President of the Romanian Paralympic Committee, Sally has a long record of support for people with disabilities in Romania and is the brain behind the international disabled table tennis competition that takes place in Cluj each year.

At the reception we applauded the herculean efforts of Romania’s paralympic athletes who have overcome enormous obstacles to compete in their sports at the highest level. Sportsmen like Eduard Novak, who was a champion skater until a horrific accident deprived him of one of his legs, but who has since fought back and wanted to realise his dream of an Olympic gold medal, this time as a paralympic cyclist. He is one of Romania’s best hopes, having already won the world championship in 2010.

The President of Romania’s Olympic Committee, Octavian Morariu, attended the reception and gave his full support to Romania’s paralympic team, making the Olympic Committee’s fantastic facilities at Izvorani available for their training. This is absolutely in line with the spirit of London 2012, where the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be given equal weight and sports will be celebrated for all.