Why is sir philip craven in a wheelchair

Previous Wheelchair Basketball confirmed in Tokyo event programme. Next One year on Rui Marques reflects on Rio experience. Nov Dec 1. You will never be forgotten in the world of wheelchair basketball, and even back in the day you used to be an amazing player and probably still regarded as one of the best one pointers that has played the game.

I have shared half of my sports life with you, since I started at Stoke Mandeville, when you played and I was refereeing. I have lived with you important moments in our sports life. You as President, and I as the person in charge of Weelchair Basketball at the 92 Paralympic Games, in Barcelona we were able to livethis great experience, which marked a new era for the Games.

During all this time I have remembered the great time I have spent with you and I wish you the best and a long life. Nov Continue Find out more. I was at Bolton School from to and then went on to take a three year Geography degree at Manchester University where I scraped through that degree but got a first class honours in Wheelchair Basketball, training hours a day at the McDougall Centre and also adding in an hour to an hour and a half of swimming each day.

By the way, I did not enjoy the swimming training like I did the wheelchair basketball training. I had had a rock climbing accident when I was 16 while I was at school which put me in a wheelchair and from then on I developed a sports career as you will hear later.

After university and my first Paralympic Games as a wheelchair basketball player, in I went to play in France for the Club Olympique de Kerpape where I was fortunate enough to play for the team that became French national champions and cup winners two years running. Over those two seasons in France, I realised that my earning capability was limited in France with marriage looming and had to come back to Britain to get a decent job.

I worked for British Coal formerly NCB from to and then, with Thatcher having closed down the British coal industry, embarked upon a career in sports administration. During my playing career I had been Chairman of the Great Britain Basketball Association on three occasions you never stayed too long there owing to the difficulties of the post.

Once I retired from British Coal in , I was able to devote my time to international wheelchair basketball. I had been elected Chairman of the international body governing wheelchair basketball at my last Paralympics in Seoul in and in I founded the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation.

To this day I am still the President of the International Paralympic Committee and will finish my final four-year term towards the end of What is your connection to Bolton School? Returning from Kuala Lumpur, Philip immediately planned with his wife what they were going to do about it. Fortunately, their daughter had just finished university and his son was nearly finished. And this was vital for his decision to put his name down for the nominee as at the time there was no salary for President of the IPC.

But Philip was not the only potential candidate from Britain. He faced a challenge from another Brit, who not only worked for the Cabinet Office at 10 Downing St, he also had the backing of the Foreign Office.

Quite the domestic support for an international position. Like all good British negotiations, Philip set up a discussion with the potential challenger in a pub. He had written communications in several languages, ultimately about bringing far more national Paralympic committees into the Paralympics. I remember most, if not all, French-speaking African nations voted for me, which really tipped the balance.

We must have sent it six, seven times to each national Paralympic committee, and it definitely had an effect. Immediately into his first term as President, challenges had to be met. The Board had to build an international brand, and they had to start from the bottom. As in so many aspects of life, money was the biggest issue. We needed to professionalise the organisation without losing the grassroots feel. But we never made any money from Salt Lake City.

We had so much success going forward as teams start with two, and the president and the CEO formed a crucial team at the top. The way we were going to achieve this was from the Games, and hope sponsorship came after. Unfortunately, at Athens in where an income of one million dollars should have come into IPC coffers, this had to be spent on enhanced television coverage. Fortunately, Jacques Rogge of the IOC, came to our aid and offered the IPC a loan of one million dollars at zero interest, which permitted us to expand our organisation.

From the IOC signed with the IPC a three-part agreement, which ensured that the Paralympic Games would be organised by the same organising committee as that which staged the Olympic Games. It was Beijing that allowed us to build our international brand.

This breakthrough at Beijing had actually happened three years earlier, in November after Philip had been re-elected as President for the first time. After that meeting in February , Hu Jintao, the President of China, declared that the Paralympics would be of equal splendour to the Olympics. For Philip, it was all about developing relationships and getting on with people.

What took London to success in their bid against the other sporting city giants? And first of all, Tony Blair and his wife did an amazing job. They were out there for the majority of the time. They saw so many IOC members. Even after the dress rehearsal, I knew we had it. True to the stereotype, the British bid stood firm underdogs against the titans.