Are the ski stars willing to allocate one percent of their prize money to para sports? In that case, will the business community contribute the same? And why isn’t Norway organizing any para races this winter? Of course, these are not random questions this Sunday. 3 December is this year the first Sunday in Advent – but also, as everyone of course knows, the International Day for the Disabled. But it is still not the day you necessarily get answers to such questions. Not this one either. Because the challenges our para-athletes face in order to be the best versions of themselves are many and seemingly insurmountable. And the stories about the best athletes are probably as much about cheese as a victory prize, as our paraalpine star Jesper Saltvik Pedersen got, as the great sporting achievements that lie behind them. That is why optimistic voices are needed. Perhaps the clearest of these belongs to Bjørnar Erikstad. The day for service Erikstad from Nøtterøy is himself a former Paralympics participant in sailing. He now heads the foundation VI, which works to promote Norwegian para sports. In the past five years, the foundation has spent more than NOK 100 million on Norwegian para sports. OPTIMIST: VI leader Bjørnar Eriksen, photographed here during the Sports Gala a few years ago. Photo: Jon Olav Nesvold / NTB Including that they contributed NOK 1 million to the prize pool when Norway organized the WC in snow sports for the para sports at Lillehammer in January 2022. In addition, NOK 700,000 came from DNB. But that was with this single promise. Since then, the World Championships in snow sports have not been held, nor have there been cash prizes in the para sports in winter. Now Erikstad wants more people to volunteer. Erikstad, like one of several, has become tired of the unwillingness to challenge the boundaries when it comes to how one relates to para sports. On this first Sunday in December, this particularly applies to the International Ski Federation, FIS. Two years ago, FIS also took over responsibility for the para section of their skiing sports. The move was met with optimism. The optimism is now gone. When Jesper Saltvik Pedersen starts the World Cup in two weeks, there will still be no cash prizes for the best on the results list. When you look at the prize money for the various disciplines on the website of the FIS, the para sport is not even mentioned. Bjørnar Erikstad wants change here. Erikstad therefore proposes to news that FIS takes one percent of the prize money from the able-bodied athletes’ prize budget and gives it to the para athletes. One single percent. It sounds manageable. In addition, he will challenge the business world to contribute the same, so that the total ends up at 2 per cent of what the able-bodied receive. In the Alpine World Cup, the total prize budget for the current season is in excess of 14 million Swiss francs. In Norwegian kroner, around NOK 175 million. For Jesper Saltvik Pedersen and the other alpinists, that would mean NOK 1.75 million in a prize pool. With contributions from the business community, this could end up at NOK 3.5 million. A big drop in the ocean for Alexander Aamodt Kilde, Mikaela Shiffrin and the other alpine stars. A real lift, not least symbolic, for the paraalpinists. When today they have nothing at all. PRIZE WINNERS: Jesper Saltvik Pedersen and Birgit Skarstein during the presentation of the Trysil-Knut prize in 2023. Photo: Emilie Holtet / NTB The vicious circle of attention Everything is not solved with prize money. Perhaps it solves nothing in isolation. Perhaps there are completely different areas that should be prioritized before that. But prize money is also a factor that could get more people over the minimum limit that allows them to bet on their sport. When the BBC did a major investigation into the level of prize money in all sports a few years ago, they found real prize money in just three para sports, namely horse riding, marathons and wheelchair tennis. The latter sport has become so popular that the winners of the singles tournaments at Wimbledon this summer each received around NOK 700,000. POPULAR: Tokito Oda with the Wimbledon trophy earlier this year. Photo: Kin Cheung / AP There are also other bright spots internationally. But they are frustratingly few. In Norway, the best para athletes have fairly generous scholarship schemes through the Olympiatoppen and through this get a foundation that athletes in other nations rarely have. In addition, a few of the very best athletes have private sponsors that make betting possible. But for para sports in general, there is one big problem: Visibility. Without visibility in the media, you cannot get an audience at the competitions. Without visibility, you don’t get sponsors. And without sponsors, you can’t afford cash prizes either. And so the circle continues to be round. And evil. It is symptomatic that para exercises are very rarely included in TV contracts, also here in Norway. Such agreements, for example when it comes to skiing, very often contain obligations about broadcasting time, which would set in motion the processes that could create change. But this costs money. And then it is all too easy to prioritize. Since the aforementioned World Cup in snow sports in January 2022, Norway has also not organized a World Cup race in any of the para sports on snow. And will not do so in the coming season either. Without anyone having a good answer as to why. Life before 26 Nowhere in Norwegian sports is private participation more important than in para sports. Partly because of generally low allocations. Partly because of Kjell Inge Røkke. The Hans Aker group is behind the aforementioned Stiftelsen VI, led by the aforementioned Bjørnar Erikstad. They contribute funds to parasports, which for many active members is absolutely essential for further investment. The foundation has also shown that they can put pressure on the management of Norwegian sports when they do not feel that their intentions are followed up well enough. Now they and the Norwegian Sports Confederation have again agreed on the way forward. A road with several sharp bends. “Anyone who can imagine becoming disabled in a car accident should make sure to do so before you turn 26,” Erikstad said with a wry smile when he stood on stage during the Equality and Discrimination Ombudsman’s annual conference this week. The conference was called “A sport for all – how do we get there?”. And no one who listened to Erikstad in Folkets Hus on Youngstorget could be in any doubt that the distance to the aforementioned goal is still very long. Erikstad talked about the rule that prevents athletes who have reached the age of 26 from receiving support for so-called activity aids. Or “equipment”, as it is called for the apparently functional. It is this pot that is decisive for many athletes when it comes to being able to continue betting on their sport, when a hand-operated competition bike does not cost 15,000, but perhaps ten times that. Or when the shoes a basketball player needs, instead is a wheelchair. WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL: USA celebrates Paralympics gold after victory over Japan in the final in 2021. Photo: YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP The problem with the pot is that it is only available to athletes under the age of 26. And that it was sold out in February anyway. The next chance to apply is in one year. When Norway’s most high-profile para athlete, the rower Birgit Skarstein, was at the Storting in October and held an appeal about precisely these framework conditions for disabled athletes, she called the situation “unsustainable” “We compete with the qualities we have”, as Skarstein expressed it in front of our elected representatives . She could have added “.. and about the money we absolutely do not have”. MEDAL COLLECTOR: Skarstein is both a medal collector – here after European Championship gold in 2022 – and an advocate for better framework conditions. Photo: WOLFGANG RATTAY / Reuters Light a candle For the competitors the funds are many – and very often good and worthy. And the priorities necessarily hard. And perhaps overly traditional. Because the creative visions of our elected representatives when it comes to rethinking the social benefits of creating more activity for people with functional challenges are often absent. And then you don’t get the desired change either. But this particular Sunday, it is permissible to hope a little extra and for a few seconds think about the idea that a single percent is sometimes what is needed to create some form of change. Feel free to call it lighting a candle.
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