Paralympic hero’s plea to rescue Games

BRITAIN’S best-known Paralympian last night called for wealthier nations to pay up and help save the Paralympics, due to begin in Rio in three weeks. Drastic financial cuts as a result of poor ticket sales have plunged the Games into crisis and left athletes feeling like ‘secondclass citizens’. Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, a former wheelchair racer, said richer countries should help ensure athletes attend after travel grants were cut. She told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘It’s desperately disappointing for athletes who potentially can’t get there. Maybe some better-off countries can step in and do what we can.’ Just 12 per cent of tickets have been sold and the Games are facing a serious budget shortfall. Last night, one of Britain’s leading Paralympic cyclists, Jon-Allan Butterworth, said the Games were being seen as a poor relation, adding: ‘We shouldn’t be treated as inferior to the Olympic athletes.’