Barredo to award Paralympic medals

Philippine Sports Association of the Differently-Abled (Philspada) chairman Mike Barredo has been tapped by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to award medals in athletics, swimming and team sports events at the Paralympic Games in London on Aug. 29-Sept. 9, a distinct honor for a Filipino considering the country has earned only a bronze medal in four appearances at the quadrennial showcase.

Barredo, a 1992 TOYM awardee for humanitarian service, was only 24 when he lost his eyesight in a car accident at about 2 a.m. in front of the Rizal Coliseum in 1979. Overtaking from the right, he drove his car into a parked vehicle. His head banged against the windshield of his car which was a total wreck. Barredo’s right eye was damaged beyond repair. He underwent at least 10 operations, three in the US, to save the vision in his left eye but to no avail.

It was a tragic ending to Barredo’s active sports career. At La Salle, he was a varsity athlete in football, volleyball, basketball, chess and track and field. Barredo inherited the athletic genes of his ancestors who were champion tennis and football players. Despite his loss of vision, Barredo was determined to live a full life. His wife Barbara was pregnant with their second child at the time of the accident and she later gave birth to Richard whom Barredo has never seen.

In 1997, Barredo organized Philspada to reestablish his love for sports. Philspada has since been integrated within the National Paralympic Committee. He has lobbied tirelessly for the amendment of R. A. No. 9064 or the “National Athletes, Coaches and Trainers Benefits and Incentives Act of 2001” in Congress to include differently-abled athletes. “The Philippine Sports Commission raises no objection to the amendment,” said Barredo. “The passage of the amendment has been stalled in the appropriations committee. We’re hoping Congress will finally ratify it. Disabled athletes competing in international events like the Paralympics undergo the same amount of training and show the same discipline and dedication as a regular athlete and it’s only just that they be equally rewarded for their efforts,” said Barredo. “We’re hoping and praying that the Senate and House of Representatives approve and enact the measures at the earliest possible time to motivate our athletes.”

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Barredo will award the Paralympic medals in his capacity as president of the International Blind Sports Association and member of the IPC International Organization of Sport for the Disabled (IOSD) Council. Philippine chef de mission Ral Rosario left for London yesterday while the rest of the delegation, including nine athletes, departs this morning. The delegation will be formally welcomed at the Paralympic Village in London on Tuesday morning after which it will be feted at a lunch reception by Philippine Ambassador Eduardo Manalo.

The nine Filipino Paralympians will compete in four sports – athletics, swimming, table tennis and powerlifting. The only Filipino to bag a medal at the Paralympics is Adeline Ancheta who took the bronze in the over 82.5 kilogram class in powerlifting at the 2000 Sydney Games. Ancheta is back with the Philippine team in London with two other powerlifters Jinkee Guion (under-44 kilograms) and Agustin Kitan (under-52 kilograms). The other athletes are Marites Burce, Isidro Vildosola, Andy Avellana, Roger Tapia, Josephine Medina and Bea Roble.

Burce will compete in javelin, discus and shot-put out of a wheelchair. Vildosola, who has an arm missing, will participate in the 1,500-meter run. Avellana will do the high jump with one leg. Tapia will run in the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints with one arm. Medina, stricken by polio, will carry the Philippine flag in the opening ceremony and is a medal bet in table tennis. Roble is entered in the 50-meter, 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle events in swimming with Rosario, a two-time Olympic swimmer, personally monitoring her progress. Roble’s coach is Antonio Ong.  

The precursor of the Paralympics was called the International Wheelchair Games which were inaugurated in London in 1948 for British World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries. The founder of the Wheelchair Games was Dr. Ludwig Guttman of Stoke Mandeville Hospital. In 1976, the Paralympics welcomed differently-abled athletes who were not only wheelchair-bound and in 1988, the Games were held directly after the Olympics for the first time in a tradition that remains today. The categories for the differently-abled are amputees, cerebral palsy, wheelchair-bound, visually impaired, intellectually challenged and an “others” category that includes multiple sclerosis, dwarfism and congenital deformities.

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IPC president Sir Philip Craven said the Paralympics’ goal is to sell every single ticket. So far, 2.1 million of 2.5 million tickets have been sold, approaching the first sell-out in Paralympic history. “It would be fitting when the Paralympic Movement returns to its spiritual birthplace, it does so in front of packed, sold-out venues,” said Craven. Olympic venues have been reconfigured for the Paralympics and hundreds of buses were converted to make them wheelchair-accessible. Tickets for athletics, cycling and wheelchair tennis were the first to go.

In 2000, Sydney sold 1.2 million Paralympic tickets. Athens’ sales fell to 850,000 in 2004 but Beijing picked it up with 1.8 million tickets in 2008. Among the Paralympic stars are South Africa’s Oscar (Blade Runner) Pistorius and Poland’s Natalia Partyka who both competed at the recent Olympics. Pistorius, 25, is a double-knee amputee who runs with carbon fiber artificial limbs. He made it to the semifinals of the 400-meter run and did the last leg of the 4x400 meter relay at the Olympics. Partyka, 23, was born without a right hand and forearm. She has competed in women’s singles table tennis in the last two Olympics. Other Paralympic stars to watch are Dutch wheelchair tennis champion 31-year-old Esther Vergeer, unbeaten in 465 straight matches, and Italian former Formula 1 driver Alex Zanardi who lost both legs in a 2001 car crash. Zanardi, 45, will compete in the cycling event of hand-biking.