Para sports locally is expanding with the aim of achieving a level of competitiveness regionally and internationally, not only in track and field, but across the spectrum of sports.

President of the Jamaica Paralympic Association (JPA) Christopher Samuda is clear as to the objective of the governing body for para sports.

“Para sports must become a pathway for personal growth and development in many sporting arenas and a gateway to aspiring youth who will self-actualise on fields of play and yes, in the boardroom of decision and policymaking”

The menu of para sports has in the last four years noticeably increased to include surfing, badminton, pistol shooting, fencing, table tennis, sitting volleyball, and archery.

Quite recently, in keeping with the association’s robust policy to expose para-athletes to as many disciplines as possible, a delegation of the JPA consisting of Glendon Cole, manager/coach and players Jason Ricketts and Shavane Daley attended a seminar in Barbados organised by the International Blind Sports Federation for blind football.

Ricketts, who represented Jamaica and was a finalist at the 2019 Lima Para Pan American Games in the T 12 shot put and who has the distinction of representing the Caribbean in blind cricket, found the workshop “an engaging and eye-opening experience as participants from the Caribbean were exposed to the beautiful game from a different perspective, but it was nevertheless captivating and intense and showcased how totally blind persons can enjoy sports regardless of their obvious impairment.”

A mandate of the Paralympic movement is to make possible the impossible and the incredible credible.

“In the para movement, we instill in our athletes a deep conviction of being the best versions of themselves competitively in sport and also in the ‘University of Life’ where education and a practical mind in many respects define today’s and tomorrow’s ambitions,” Samuda said.

The evidence of the marriage of sport and education is clear. Ricketts combines his sporting accomplishments with a degree in media and communication and a minor in industrial relations, a master’s in communication for social and behavioural change and the pursuit of a PhD which has him researching sport as an instrument of transforming and rehabilitating the lives of persons with disabilities.

Chairman of the JPA’s Athletes Commission and the 2019 gold medallist in the unified men’s badminton Travis Ebanks passed his bar exams last year and is now an attorney-at-law.

The 2019 Para Pan American track and field T 13 100m silver medallist and Newport Ferzan scholar, Chadwick Campbell, and the 2019 Lima Para Pan American bronze medallist in judo and Credit Info scholar, Theodor Subba, are both second-year students at The University of the West Indies (Mona Campus) with the 2019 Lima Para Pan American bronze medallist in taekwondo, Shauna Kay Hines.

“Education and sport when combined have opened many doors and the JPA is determined to have its athletes optimise their talent and avail themselves of educational opportunities in enabling career pathways and responsible citizenship. And if growing the amount of para sports in which the youth of Jamaica can participate can be a catalyst, then the governing body’s vision is clear and is being attained,” Samuda reaffirmed.