Sir Patrick Allen to launch Paralympic ‘I’m Phenomenal’ campaign
THE JAMAICA Paralympic Association (JPA) will this year initiate a campaign styled ‘I’m Phenomenal’ in characterising the DNA of the local Paralympic movement while celebrating the talent and giftedness of para athletes. This engagement will become a permanent trademark of the movement around which several activations will take place annually.
Governor General Sir Patrick Allen will formally launch the campaign in a ceremony at King’s House on March 10, heralding ‘Paralympic Day’ on March 11, which His Excellency in 2021 declared in a proclamation be officially and annually celebrated as a milestone in the movement.
The 2019 Para Pan-american judo bronze medallist, Paralympian Theador Subba, embodies the spirit for he created history by being Jamaica’s firstever para judo athlete and medallist at an international game, which was remarkable as he only started the sport some nine months before the games where he competed against athletes who were in the sport for several years, some of whom did not progress to the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021, which he did in another historic move.
“You have to grasp opportunities with a strong mind and powerful hands and become the athlete beyond your imagination,” Subba said.
JPA President Christopher Samuda agrees.
“I’m Phenomenal captures the ethos of the Paralympic movement, the spirit of which compels a mandate, an attitude and aptitude that make possible the impossible and credible the incredible,” he remarked.
The local Paralympic movement has distinguished achievements in sport at the global and regional levels, particularly in track and field and
wheelchair basketball, and since 2017 it has expanded its representation into para sports such as judo, taekwondo, fencing, surfing and archery,
while badminton, table tennis and pistol shooting are being pursued for berths on the international stage.
Chairman of JPA’S Athletes Commission, attorney-at-law and badminton player Travis Ebanks, in expressing the mandate of the JPA, said: “Para athletes live by the mantra country above self and we continue to do just that as we strive for excellence on the world stage despite the obstacles and resource constraints we encounter while representing the best that Jamaica has to offer.”
SKY IS THE LIMIT
Paralympian gold medallist, world record holder in the F52/53 javelin event and Digicel ambassador, Alphanso Cunningham, OD, added: “We don’t complain we just perform as the sky is the limit. We we know we have the ability to be extraordinary.”
JPA director Winfield Bobban, managing director of Surgix Limited, a company specialising in prostheses, knows and understands the abilities and capacity of para athletes.
“We in the Paralympic movement and at Surgix know that limblessness is not at all a death sentence but rather it presents opportunities for individuals to pursue meaningfully and inspiringly a new lease on life,” Bobban said.
Sport manager and welldecorated Paralympian, Neville Sinclair, OD, sums it all up: “This is what we stand for. This is how we approach life. This is what we teach and instil – ‘You are phenomenal’.”