Paralympic honours row: David Weir should have got a knighthood, says MP

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/dec/30/paralympians-honours-david-weir

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The former sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe has weighed into the controversy about perceived double-standards for Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the New Year honours list.

Sutcliffe said the decision not to give more Paralympians top honours was a "big mistake" and a "missed opportunity" to be consistent with their Olympic counterparts.

His comments came after the wheelchair athlete David Weir and para-equestrian Lee Pearson suggested Paralympians had to work harder to receive the highest honours.

Paralympic cyclist and former swimmer Sarah Storey, who received the top award given to a disabled athlete this year by being made a dame, has eleven gold medals. Some have contrasted that to Kelly Holmes, the middle-distance runner who was given the same honour after winning two golds at the 2004 Olympic Games.

Sutcliffe said the sport honours committee had made a "big mistake" in not awarding the highest honours to Paralympians like Weir, the six-time Paralympic gold medallist, who received a CBE.

"There was an opportunity to be consistent and if you look at his record over several Olympics I think the least he should have got is a knighthood," the Labour MP for Bradford South told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

"Because the whole purpose of the Games was to inspire a generation – and how better to inspire a generation than to give somebody a knighthood?"

Weir told the Daily Telegraph it seemed that Paralympians were not recognised in the honours as readily has their non-disabled counterparts. He said he would have been disappointed if Storey had not been made a dame.

"It is a weird one how they choose it. Sometimes it seems that Paralympians have to win lots and lots of medal to get a damehood or a knighthood. Kelly Holmes was made a dame when she won two gold medals, but it seems we have to get into double figures to get it.

"Sarah Storey should have been awarded this years ago, and I just feel that sometimes we are left out perhaps because we are not in the public eye".

On Twitter Weir said he was "extremely happy" with his CBE, but was simply saying he believed Storey should have been honoured "a long time ago". "I certainly wasn't saying I deserved a knighthood or trying to take away from anyone that has been awarded one".

Para-equestrian Pearson, who received a CBE in 2009 and won his 10th gold medal at this year's Paralympics, told the Independent on Sunday he was "disappointed" not to receive a knighthood, saying: "It's the discrepancy that pisses me off".

"Obviously, 10 golds, one silver and one bronze just isn't enough. I'm disappointed because I do feel I've given a lot to Paralympic sport and equestrianism. I think 10 gold medals is quite an achievement".

He added: "There still seems to be a discrepancy between a Paralympic medal and an Olympic medal. It's tougher to get on in normal life if you've got a disability, and then to do a sport on top of that is quite an achievement, I think, but maybe the powers that be don't."

The British Paralympic Association has said the New Year honours list was the most balanced list in the history of Paralympic sport, but there was still an "element of 'catch up' to happen".

Two Olympians – Bradley Wiggins and Ben Ainslie – received knighthoods, while Storey, who was made a dame, was the single Paralympian to receive that level of honour. Four Olympians and one Paralympian received a CBE, four Olympians and two Paralympians received an OBE and 28 Olympians and 24 Paralympians were awarded the MBE.