PARIS, France (AFP) — The IPC World Athletics Championships in Lyon next month are an opportunity to build on the success of last year’s Paralympics and build awareness about disabled sport, the head of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) told AFP in an interview yesterday.

French para-athletes have been critical in the past about the status accorded to them in relation to their non-disabled counterparts, while the amount of coverage on French television of last year’s sell-out Games across the Channel was also questioned.

But with a new domestic television deal signed for the July 19-28 championships in eastern France, IPC president Philip Craven said the greater exposure could challenge traditional attitudes and improve media exposure.

“I think already with the Games in London that’s what’s changed perceptions of the people who saw it and that will continue,” he said on a visit to Paris.

“More people will watch Lyon, hopefully, and then looking forward to the next World Championships in Qatar in 2015 then moving on to (the 2016 Paralympics in) Rio, it’s going to be fantastic.”

Last year’s Paralympics were the biggest since the event began in Rome in 1960, with more than 4,200 athletes from over 160 countries, including reclusive North Korea, competing to packed venues after a successful Olympics.

In a sign of the expansion of para-sport, 1,200 athletes from 97 countries will take part in Lyon, compared with 950 competitors from 78 nations at the last World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2011, the IPC said.

Among them will be Brazil’s Alan Oliveira, who just last week lowered the 100m world record to 10.77secs, breaking the world record for both the T43 double, below-the-knee and T44 single, below-the-knee amputee classes. T44 Paralympic 100m champion — the previous world record holder Jonnie Peacock — will be out for revenge.

Other competitors include Britain’s multiple gold medallist wheelchair racer Hannah Cockcroft.

Craven said progress was being made in the public’s exposure to para-sport, with new broadcasting deals sealed with Britain’s Channel 4, the European Broadcasting Union, Brazilian and Australian television.

“Different countries wake up at different times and it takes specific moments for that to happen. I think that’s what happened (at the Paralympics in London),” he added.

“In comparison to what had been covered before, London could be viewed as a great triumph on French TV for the Paralympics.

“I think it was the first time my mother-in-law, who’s French, didn’t have to switch on her television at two in the morning to watch the Paralympics.”

The success of the Paralympics led to calls in some quarters for a possible merger with the Olympics.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is holding its World Championships in Moscow in August, but Craven said there had been no discussion about a joint event comprising both competitions.

He indicated, however, that the IPC worlds in 2017, due to take place at the Olympic Stadium in London a week before the IAAF event at the same venue, could become a model for future bids.