International Sport Summit to be held alongside World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games
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.
