Financial boost for Paralympians
Fifty years after Eve Rimmer won New Zealand’s first Paralympic gold, Kiwi Paralympians will receive funding parity with other Olympic athletes.
Rimmer was the first woman to represent New Zealand at the Paralympics, the only female named alongside 14 men to compete at the Tel Aviv Games in 1968.
She won gold in the javelin, two silvers and a bronze. Rimmer went on to win 14 Paralympic medals in her career, which stood as a record until swimmer Sophie Pascoe overtook that mark with 15 medals in the pool.
Her feats were celebrated at a Paralympics New Zealand function to celebrate its 50th anniversary on Tuesday night and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave athletes extra cause for celebration.
She announced two initiatives to bridge the funding gap between Paralympic and Olympic athletes.
The High Performance Sport New Zealand parity initiatives will come via performance enhancement grants, which will be the same value for both Paralympians and Olympians.
Previous grants for Olympians could be up to $20,000 more than Paralympians received. Ardern also announced a health insurance plan for all carded athletes.
‘‘It’s only fair that para athletes will be rewarded for their outstanding achievements in an equitable way,’’ she said.
‘‘You are part of a worldwide social change movement which uses the power of sport to promote a more diverse and inclusive society – an objective that is right in line with what this government seeks to achieve,’’ she told a Paralympics NZ celebration function on Tuesday night.
At 15, Rimmer was left paralysed from the waist down in a car crash.
‘‘I would swap them all, everything I’ve had out of life, for two ordinary legs that work,’’ she once said when discussing her disability and successful Paralympic career.
‘‘To get up and dance again. To run down the beach and plunge into the sea. To ride a bike through the countryside. To walk free with the wind in my face. To feel the grass between my toes.’’
She was told by medical professionals she would probably never be able to conceive, but gave birth to two healthy girls.
On Tuesday night, Pascoe met Rimmer’s daughters, Wendy Gibb and Julie Quilty, to celebrate the funding parity news.
‘‘It was an amazing moment to win my 15th medal at Rio 2016 and surpass the record of 14 that Eve Rimmer had set by 1980,’’ Pascoe said. ‘‘She was such a pioneer and it’s because of our early Paralympians that we have the respect we have today.
‘‘I never got to meet her so meeting her family and seeing 1968 gold and silver medals was really special.’’
The event in Auckland hosted the 209 athletes to have competed at the Paralympics since 1968 and those aiming for Tokyo in 2020.
New Zealand has now competed at 23 Paralympic Games and won 221 medals. Kiwis athletes have also competed at 11 consecutive Paralympic Winter Games and medalled in all but two.