GB captain threatens boycott of Paralympics in eligibility row

Wheelchair basketball squad united in support of team-mate Appeal urged against IPC’S controversial ruling on Bates

The captain of Great Britain’s wheelchair basketball team has said that the players would consider boycotting the Paralympics over the eligibility row that could prompt a team-mate to have a leg amputated.

revealed last week that George Bates, a world and European champion, had been told he did not meet the International Paralympic Committee’s impairment criteria, even though he was registered disabled and had had virtually no movement in his left leg since the age of 11.

Bates, who is 26, lives in constant pain and doctors gave him the option of having his leg amputated when he was 14. It is a decision that he is now willing to review so that he can continue a wheelchair basketball career that peaked when he top-scored in the World Championship final against the United States in 2018.

Phil Pratt, the captain of the British wheelchair basketball team, said that the players were universally behind Bates and would make their own protest if an appeal failed.

“No one is accepting that this ends. We are all behind him,” Pratt said. “Hopefully it doesn’t get to a stage where we are having to protest or kind of boycott the Paralympics. It is not just going to be us, GB athletes, who are doing it. It is going to be the whole world of wheelchair basketball supporting this and trying to help George and other athletes like him.

“Obviously that is the worst case scenario. We have to appeal. If that doesn’t get overruled or overturned, there is going to have to be a case of us protesting in some manner. If we don’t make a stand now, what happens to the next George Bates, the next teenage kid who isn’t able to play able-bodied sport? He has no sport, he can’t compete. He has nowhere to go.”

Almost 13,000 people have al

Drastic: Last week’s story telling how George Bates was considering amputation ready signed a petition to the IPC in which it is urged to review its classification code for disability. Although restricted muscle power or range of movement potentially are eligible impairments, Bates has been ruled out because his specific condition, complex regional pain syndrome, is not accepted.

As well as Bates, there are eight other players who have been deemed ineligible and Pratt fears that the IPC’S stance will have a huge impact on future generations of disabled people.

“It was like they were looking to kick people out of our sport to make a statement,” he said. “I have a lot of contacts through other teams. I have never had a conversation with anybody saying, ‘Why is he not playing? He’s not disabled’. It’s just never been an issue.

“I can’t understand who is benefiting from this. The guys with minimal disabilities have elevated our game. I want to compete against the best players in the world. A kid might see a George Bates and think, ‘Wow that’s incredible’. He’s phenomenal. You are taking that away.

“I feel like the IPC’S categories are so black and white. George is one of the nicest, most humble people I have met. He is getting no advantage. There are people [in wheelchair basketball] moving around a lot easier. He needs a crutch; he has a terrible limp, he can’t put weight on one side of his body. If you look at his leg, there is one side that looks as disabled as mine – and I have been in a wheelchair since the age of three.”

A spokesperson for the IPC said it was “sympathetic” with Bates’s situation but said that the classification code “clearly states that complex regional pain syndrome is a health condition that does not lead to an eligible impairment” for Paralympic participation.

The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation agrees that Bates’s condition can lead to permanent impairments and its president, Ulf Mehrens, said that it would lobby the IPC membership to review the latest scientific evidence.