Hosts Australia have named 13 cyclists who will compete on the track and road at the 2019 International Federation for Athletes with Intellectual Impairments (World Intellectual Impairment Sport) Global Games in Brisbane from 12-19 October.

The group is the largest cycling team ever selected for an World Intellectual Impairment Sport competition.  The team of eight men and five women will aim to impress in front of home crowds, especially as track cycling will make its Global Games debut.

“We are delighted to see so many athletes step up for the Games and the support of Cycling Victoria and Cycling Australia providing the pathway and opportunities for these athletes,” said Robyn Smith CEO of Sport Inclusion Australia.

As the World Intellectual Impairment Sport member, Sport Inclusion Australia works with local and national sport organisations to provide inclusive opportunities for all Australians.

“We are pleased to be supporting the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games and Sport Inclusion Australia in providing opportunities for people with an intellectual impairment to represent Australia.  We look forward to continuing to work with Sport Inclusion Australia to provide further opportunities in the future,” said Cycling Australia General Manager – Sport, Kipp Kaufmann.

The World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games is the highest level cyclists with an intellectual impairment can compete at.  With more than 1,000 athletes competing in 10 sports, it is also the world’s biggest high performance event of its kind overall.

Australia has competed at all four previous Global Games but only sent cyclists to the 2009 and 2011 games in the Czech Republic and Italy, respectively.

Victoria’s Nathan Broeren competed and medalled at both and will return in Brisbane.  He collected two bronze medals in the individual time trial and team time trial in 2009. In Italy he finished third in the men’s road race.

Broeren will be joined by fellow Victorians: Andre Ascui, Carlo Manolitsas, Cameron Marshall, Harry Mezger, Julian Ursini and Jamieson Whiteley along with Queensland’s Nathan Glarvey.

The women’s team of Annaliese Hodge, Chloe Turner, Molly Thatcher, Montana Whiteley and Georgia Powning also come from Victoria.

The team features siblings Montana and Jamieson Whiteley.

Apart from Broeren the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games will see the debut of all team members in the Green and Gold jerseys and the first experience for Head Coach Brad Reardon of Queensland.

“I am looking forward to the Games and importantly helping this team of cyclists to perform at their best in front of a home crowd,” Reardon said.

But for some team members it will not be the first time they have competed for their country.

Glarvey first represented Australia at the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Athletics Championships in 2001 in Tunisia and then Canberra in 2005, while Mezger, Turner, Powning, Whiteley (Montana) and Manolitsas all represented Australia at the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Athletics Half Marathon World Championships in 2018.

Cycling will get underway in Brisbane on 14 October, following the Opening Ceremony on 12 October. Track cycling was made a full medal event following a demonstration at the 2015 Global Games in Ecuador.

Australian cycling team

Men

Nathan Broeren

Harry Mezger

Cameron Marshall

Julian Ursini

Andre Ascui

Carlo Manolitsas

Jamieson Whiteley

Nathan Glarvey

Women

Annaliese Hodge

Chloe Turner

Montana Whiteley

Georgia Powning

Molly Thatcher

Head Coach: Brad Reardon

The International Federation for Athletes with Intellectual Impairments (World Intellectual Impairment Sport) has appointed British branding agency Blue Strawberry Elephant to lead its rebrand which will be launched in late 2019.

The project is the biggest of its kind ever undertaken by World Intellectual Impairment Sport as it looks to create a clear, bold name and image to represent its diverse work around the world.

The organisation wants to make a clean break between its current brand whilst expanding on its presence and ethos as the world’s biggest high performance sports organisation for athletes with intellectual impairments.

Nick Parr, World Intellectual Impairment Sport Executive Director, said: “We are really excited to be working with the team at Blue Strawberry Elephant on a striking new brand which will take us into the future, help us to attract partners and ensure we are recognised as a global leader in our field.

“The survey we conducted in late 2018 attracted around 200 responses from athletes, members, and the public, most of whom told us we needed to make changes to help ensure our unique position is protected long into the future. This includes our move in recent years to include impairments such as autism and Down syndrome, filling a gap in high performance sport for these athletes.

“We therefore chose Blue Strawberry Elephant because of their experience working with other sport organisations and their belief in the transformative power of our work.”

The new brand is tentatively expected to be launched at the closing ceremony of the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games in Brisbane, Australia, on 19 October. It will then be rolled out across the World Intellectual Impairment Sport membership over the following 12 months.

Parr continued: “We are counting on our members to help us introduce it to the world and continue to be our brand ambassadors on a national level.

“I would like to thank the other agencies for their impressive and insightful pitches – it was not an easy choice.”

Dave Atkin, Blue Strawberry Elephant’s Managing Director, said: “Being asked to design and develop a new name and brand identity for World Intellectual Impairment Sport is a great honour; also extremely humbling, given the quality of the American and Australian colleagues who competed for the project.

“We are really looking forward to collaborating on delivering the new identity in time for the Global Games.”

Blue Strawberry Elephant are a fully independent graphic design studio and brand consultancy; working with clients across most areas from sports and health services through to industrial, commercial and engineering sectors.

The agency and World Intellectual Impairment Sport will work to launch the new brand at the Global Games – the world’s biggest high performance sports event for athletes with an intellectual impairment.

Featuring over 1,000 athletes competing in 10 sports, the edition in Brisbane is expected to be the best yet.

As well as acting as the World Championships for most of the non-Paralympic sports on the programme, Brisbane 2019 offers athletes the chance to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in athletics, swimming and table tennis.

In addition, athletes competing in new and trial eligibility groups (II2 – for athletes with a more significant impairment and II3 – for athletes with high functioning autism) have been added for the first time as World Intellectual Impairment Sport grows its reach around the world.

World Intellectual Impairment Sport has more than 80 national members and is the International Federation for a variety of summer and winter sports, organising world and regional Championships every year. The organisation also manages the eligibility process for athletics, swimming and table tennis – a requirement of classification in those sports.

By Giuseppe Napoli | For World Intellectual Impairment Sport

French cyclist Aurelie Minodier is looking ahead to the October’s International Federation for Athletes with Intellectual Impairments (World Intellectual Impairment Sport) Global Games with visions of victory as she tries to regain her road race world title.

The Global Games are the world’s biggest high performance sports event for athletes with an intellectual impairment and will double-up as the World Championships for road cycling. The 2019 edition will take place in Brisbane, Australia, from 12-19 October.

Minodier, who won gold in both the time trial and road race in Racice three years ago, followed that up with two silvers in Assen, the Netherlands in 2017, and Paris, France, in 2018.

The French Federation for Adapted Sport (FFSA) has increased investment in her sport, including new training facilities, which has helped make Minodier into one of her country’s best medal hopes.

The French cyclist is currently preparing for Brisbane 2019 with a clear goal in mind: “I want to be champion both in team trial and road race. This competition is wonderful, it really makes us dream.”

The road to Brisbane for Minodier will involve hours of training according to a specific regime created by her coaches: “It will be a tough programme. I am training three times a week and I have a training camp with the French federation every two months. “

The Global Games will be an excellent opportunity for the French cyclist to assess her progress and build on the good results of the last few seasons.

“My world champion’s title at Racice [Czech Republic] in 2016 made me really proud,” Minodier said. “I thought about my family, my boyfriend and all the people I know who supported me. I was really satisfied with the outcome of the last two World Championships as well. In Paris, however, I was more concentrated than in Assen and I had trained better.”

The Global Games are also an opportunity to gather the global athlete community together and it is this which Minodier is excited about: “The best part of these competitions is meeting new people, other athletes and supporters, it is something I really like. It is always funny to gather together in our sport community. We have a strong connection and we try always to communicate between us, despite the linguistic barrier.”

Putting the social aspect aside, Minoder is laser-focused on her goals and says that she never finds it hard to fire herself up:

“The hardest part of my sport is to keep the focus. Sometimes I feel stressed and anxious and it is difficult for me to manage it. Nevertheless, if I stay focused on my goals and I follow my trainer’s instructions, I keep the level of motivation high.

“I just need to pedal, and the motivation switches on. It is as easy as it comes.”

The 2019 World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games will feature more than 1,000 athletes competing in 10 sports – athletics, swimming, table tennis, Para taekwondo, basketball, cycling, futsal, rowing, cricket and hockey.

The organisers of the 2019 International Federation for Athletes with Intellectual Impairments (World Intellectual Impairment Sport) Global Games have announced that an International Sport Summit will be held in Brisbane, Australia, from 10-11 October 2019, to coincide with the multisport event.

The World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games are the world’s biggest high performance sports event for athletes with intellectual impairments. Around 1,000 competitors are expected to take part in 10 sports between 12-19 October.

The International Sport Summit – the first of its kind – will have the theme of ‘Inclusion – What Matters in the Future’.

Its aim is to gather the World Intellectual Impairment Sport family and leading figureheads to discuss and debate how athletes with intellectual impairments can have better access to sports at both the grass-roots and high performance levels.

Several key note speakers have confirmed their attendance including Andrew Parsons, President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). After opening the summit on 10 October, Parsons will also attend the Opening Ceremony of the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games on 12 October.

Andrew Parsons, IPC President said: “I am greatly looking forward to attending the International Sport Summit and seeing the action at the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games.

“Attending the summit will provide me an opportunity to showcase the work the IPC is undertaking to drive social inclusion through Para sport and our new strategic plan which will be published later this year.  It will also be a chance to learn more about the work of World Intellectual Impairment Sport and see some excellent sport once the Games begin.”

Global Games Sports Company Chief Executive Officer, Robyn Smith, who is also the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Vice President, said: “To have the President of the International Paralympic Committee support our event is so important to our movement. It is confirmation of the IPC and World Intellectual Impairment Sport relationship and Andrew’s commitment to the entire Paralympic family.”

Other keynote speakers include Andrew Frost, Professor Jennifer Mactavish, Kate Palmer and Lynne Anderson.

Frost is the Founder of Frost Included and is a globally recognised diversity, inclusion and leadership expert. From 2007-2012 he was the Head of Diversity and Inclusion for the Organising Committee of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, and has also worked at KPMG as Head of Diversity and Inclusion.

Professor Jennifer Mactavish is the Dean of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies at Ryerson University, Canada. For the last 20 years, Professor Mactavish has been an expert in the field of persons and athletes with an intellectual impairment and spent 15 years leading the research to get athletes with an intellectual impairment re-introduced to the Paralympic programme at London 2012.

Palmer became the first female Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Sports Commission in 2017. Prior to this, she spent ten years as Chief Executive Officer of Netball Australia. During this time, netball grew to be among the largest participation sports in Australia.

Anderson was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Paralympics Australia in 2015. Since then Anderson, with an exceptional background in sports marketing, spearheaded the re-brand of the Australian Paralympic Committee to Paralympics Australia in 2019. In addition, Anderson helped secure an additional AUD 12 million of funding from the federal government for the national team’s preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

The International Sport Summit will be held at the Suncorp Stadium. The full programme will be published on 1 July.

The 2019 World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games will showcase the highest ever number of sports either sanctioned or recognised by the relevant International Federation. Athletics, table tennis and swimming also form part of the qualification process for Tokyo 2020.