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00:00And for more, we can cross to Danielle Brown. She's a former Paralympic archer who won gold
00:04in both Beijing and London. Danielle, thanks so much for being with us. What did you think of
00:09the opening ceremony yesterday? I really enjoyed it. I think it's a real brave move doing something
00:16different and bringing people to the heart of Paris, a really iconic city. So I thought that
00:22was great. I also really liked how it highlighted the challenges that disabled people face, not just
00:29athletes. It's a really, really important message and that was coming across loud and clear.
00:35What are you expecting to see in this edition of the Games? Are there any particular events
00:43that you're looking forward to especially? You know, I think that the best thing about
00:49the Paralympic Games is that there's 22 sports on offer. You can dip in and out and watch so
00:55many different ones from wheelchair rugby through to boccia, the athletics, cycling. I just think
01:01it's great that you get to see such a variety. I'm quite excited about the fencing and canoeing
01:07personally, but yeah, I just want to watch so many different sports. I don't know if you spent much
01:13time in Paris. It is a notoriously difficult city to navigate for people with mobility issues.
01:22They've been working on it, but how well do you think, how well suited rather, is Paris to host
01:26these Paralympic Games in your opinion? I mean, it is tough. Accessibility is tricky. It is difficult.
01:32I mean, and that's what you get with a historic city, right? You know, it's quite difficult trying
01:38to make accessible something that was built before those considerations were put in place.
01:46I do think things could be better, but what I would say is that this is a worldwide issue,
01:52and I think that that's what we need to be highlighting. Disabled people face these
01:56barriers on a day-to-day basis, so highlighting those challenges and saying that this needs to
02:02be changed is really, really important, not just in Paris, but across the world as a whole.
02:08Yeah, it's a long-running concern here actually, and many people are hoping that the Games could
02:12be an impetus for some proper infrastructure adjustments to make it more accessible to those
02:18with mobility issues. Can you tell us a little bit about your experience in the Paralympics?
02:23You competed in Beijing in 2008 and London 2012. Yeah, and you know what? I think what's really
02:29amazing is that if you look at the Paralympic movement, it started in 1960 and it's just grown.
02:35I competed in two of them, and there was such a difference in that four years between Beijing
02:40and London. I won golds at both, so I did the same thing, but the difference was really in
02:46that reception. So after Beijing, I did two media interviews. After London, I did two full days of
02:53media interviews, and the appetite for parasport is just growing. We've been seeing those ticket
02:59sales. It's getting bigger. It's getting more exciting. People want to watch it,
03:04and the media are taking notice of that, which is fantastic. We're seeing more of it
03:09on TV, more airtime, which is absolutely what it needs. Indeed. There was a period before London
03:17where it seemed like things were going in the other direction. There was funding that was cut,
03:21especially during the Rio Olympics. Do you think that the Olympic Organising Committee
03:28is making it more of a priority to properly promote and celebrate these games?
03:34Yes, I think we've really seen that. It's not just down to the Olympic Committee. I think it's
03:38down to the countries as well. I think the last three, four years has been tricky with
03:45COVID. I think that really, really did stunt things, which wasn't anything to do with Tokyo or
03:50the IPC. But I think that we are heading in the right direction, and particularly with
03:57the Paris Organising Committee getting behind it in the way they have done, the way they've
04:02been promoting it, the way that the media has been brought in. The build-up, as well as actually
04:06being at the games, has just been really instrumental in growing the movement as a whole.