Howdy ya'll.

If you've read the recent articles that have been written about the December 6th USOC Executive Committee Meeting regarding vertical integration, you may be more than a little concerned about where all this is heading.

As the Swimming representative to the Paralympic Athletes Committee, I was asked to testify at that meeting on behalf of the PAC, and therefor the Paralympic athletes.

I'd like to tell you a little bit about what happened at that meeting, the decisions that came out of that meeting, and what you as individuals can do to help.

Ten people were asked to testify before the USOC Executive Committee from a wide range of positions (athletes, DSO directors, NGB directors, etc.).

The essence of my testimony was that vertical integration what the paralympic athletes want, and what would be in the best interest of the USOC if it truly had an interest in insuring the competitive success of the USA at the Paralympic Games.

The directors of the NGBs, Chuck Weiglus of USA -Swimming being the most vocal of them, stated the following:

The NGBs do not believe the USOC is capable of finding the funding required to take on Paralympic activities.
The NGBs believe that taking on Paralympic activities would distract from their ability to produce Olympic athletes.
The NGBs believe that they would be opened up to new liability from disabled athletes suing over any little discrepancy in equality between themselves and able-bodied athletes. (A suit of this magnitude would bankrupt an NGB from the defending of it alone, not to mention any damage settlement.)
As a result of these meetings, the USOC ExCom has decided to send the president of the USOC, Bill Hybl, to Washington DC before the end of December to meet with the senators involved in the drafting of the ASA. He will be seeking for what the senators believe to me the "minimalist" interpretation of the law. Basically, what is the absolute minimum that the USOC would have to do in order to satisfy the law.
As you can imagine, this is at best a step sideways for the Paralympic movement in the USA. So, here's where you come in.

WRITE A LETTER TO YOUR SENATOR, AND TO YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE.

Tell them how you feel about the issue of paralympic support by the USOC, and the NGBs. Tell them that it is essential that funding be provided to the USOC from the federal government in order to, at least in the short term, support these activities. (Cause I can tell you right now. Nobody is going to let it cut into the budgets of the NGBs, and programs for the Olympic athletes. Politically it just won't happen).

So get on the horn, call, write, fax, e-mail, etc. your senator and representative. Let them know how important this issue is. We are at a point where the voice of every athlete needs to be heard. Tell your friends, your family, your teammates, etc.

If they believe this is important, if you believe this is important, then let your senator and representative know that this is important.

The PAC will be drafting a letter to USOC president Bill Hybl, and a set of senators directly responsible for the ASA, esp. Ted Stevens.

Best wishes,
Jason Wening
Swimming Representative PAC

Statement provided by
Jason Wening, PAC Representative to Ex Com USOC

I am Jason Wening: 2 time Paralympic swimmer, multiple Paralympic medallist, 4 time world record holder, and swimming representative to the newly formed Paralympic Athletes Committee.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for allowing the opinion of the Paralympic Athletes Committee, and the Paralympic athletes to be heard by this body today.

We are addressing an issue that will have such incredible and long term ramifications for the entire USOC that I dont honestly think anybody can predict the results.

This is about more than uniforms, or Paralympic
athlete access to USOC services. I think this issue and how it is handled will delve to the very heart of the philosophy and integrity of the USOC.

That said, the Paralympic Athletes Committee recently provided the special task force on vertical integration a set of recommendations directly pertaining to the integration of Paralympic sports into this organization.

I trust that this body has been made aware of those recommendations, and therefor will not review them in detail.

The bottom line of those recommendations is this:
It is the heart felt belief of my constituency and I that complete vertical integration of Paralympic athletes into the USOC and NGB structure is by far the best way to provide for the competitive success of the United States of America at the Paralympic Games.

The Paralympic athletes believe the DSO structure, while important at the grass roots level, does not have the ability to meet the needs of elite disabled athletes. We believe these needs can best be met by the national
governing bodies of our respective sports.

The Paralympic athletes and I are under absolutely no delusion as to the difficulty and complexity of the tasks required to vertically integrate us. This may be one of the greatest challenges that the USOC has ever faced.

We are eager to be a part of this family, to serve on its committees, to join its leadership. But you, ladies and gentlemen, have the wonderful fortune of being in a position to determine how the USOC will rise or fail to rise to meet the challenge of integrating the Paralympic athletes.

The USOC has been, by law, charged with the development, nurturing, and support of the Olympic, Pan American, and Paralympic athletes who choose to make the commitment to represent this great country at their respective Games. I am here because I unequivocally believe that this body has every desire to do the thing which is best for these athletes.

Vertical integration is not the easy thing, but it is the right thing, and the best thing, for the Paralympic, and I would venture the Olympic, and Pan American Games athletes.

The easy thing to do would be to create a separate Paralympic Sports organization, cram all the Paralympic sports into it, and then proceed to push it out of the way where it wont be a nuisance to the NGBs.

We, thepeople who are the USOC, can do better than that.

We are charting new ground here almost. Australia, Great Britain, Canada, and others have gone before us, have successfully integrated Paralympic athletes, and have produced the Paralympic medal counts to prove it. The United States of America is nearly in third world status when it comes to Paralympic medal counts.

This body can either be responsible for the beginning of a new era in US Paralympic excellence, or it can be responsible for the maintenance of the status quo.

The Paralympic Athletes sincerely hope that you will consider the prior instead of the latter of these two options.

Yesterday I and two other disabled swimmers, a 13 year old boy with autism, and a 12 year old girl with severe spina bifida, swam in a USA - Swimming competition representing our USA-Swimming Club, the Ann Arbor Swim Club, a club that is the age group home of a 1996 Olympic Gold Medallist.

I could spend the rest of the afternoon giving anecdotal evidence that supports the fact that Integration works and is being practiced at the local level. We can make it work at the national level as well.

I leave you with this. Everyday, the Olympic, Pan American, and Paralympic athletes that this organization is held responsible for supporting choose to do that which is challenging instead of that which is easy. If these athletes chose that which is easy over that which is challenging, there would be no Olympic, Pan American, or Paralympic athletes. And if there were no athletes, there would be no United States
Olympic Committee.

So, Ladies and gentlemen, I have great faith in the wisdom of this body.

I ask you to search your intellect, search your heart, and search your conscience. And I say to you. Do not do the thing that is easy, do the thing that is best for the athletes, do the thing that is right.

Vertically Integrate us.

Thank you for your time this morning.

My personal comments
----------------------------------
I feel that my statements, and other statements that in that vein were well received by the Executive Committee.

I get the impression that they definitely want to do something, but they are desperately unsure of what that thing should be, and how it should be carried out.

There is a real concern for the issue, and I believe for the athletes as well, by the individuals on the Executive Committee. It is obvious that they feel very aware of the fact that they are not going to be able to make everybody happy, and this is a little paralyzing.

Paralyzing because the truth may be that they can either make the Paralympians happy, or they can make the NGBs happy.

If this really is the truth, then this issue has the
potential to quickly degenerate into a lose-lose situation for the individuals on the Executive Committee. I sincerely hope that enough dialog can be generated to avoid that.


Now more than ever I think it is essential that we read the newspapers with a whole jar of salt. The press is fishing for very specific stories so that they can blast the USOC for discrimination against the disabled.

Im not convinced that the facts or context of the
story matter in the slightest to them. Many of the reporters who talked to me after Mondays meeting were wording questions in a way that would encourage me to make a series of statements condemning the USOC, and especially USA-Swimming. I chose not to play along.

At this point the USOC needs to concretely determine its commitment to the Paralympic Games, its interpretation of the ASA, and exactly what that implies.

The time for fact finding and speculation is finished. Enough information, possibly too much information has been collected. But I am convinced that nothing will happen until the individuals of the EC and BOD take the time to sort out what they believe the mission of the USOC is. Then for better or worse, regardless of who it might upset, they need to commit themselves to that philosophy, and take action consistent with it.

Tuesday morning, I awoke with my brilliant insight for the year. I am convinced that there is a viable alternative to the currently binodal problem: complete vertical integration vs. a completely separate Paralympic Sports Organization. I saw something existing almost as a hybrid of the two. I am currently working out the details of my thought process, especially trying to prove to myself that this concept will be good for the athletes.

Some other thoughts. After having time to ruminate on the events of Mondays meeting, I am convinced more than ever that there is something at a very philosophical level at stake here. Ive been listening to various peoples reactions to what they read of Chuck Weilgus statements in the paper.

One person said that if the sole purpose of the NGB is to produce Olympic swimmers, then its obvious that his whole age group program is of no interest to USA-Swimmin because he knew that all but one or two of the swimmers that are currently on his team would have a shot at Olympic Trials, not to mention the team itself.

An athlete on the USA-Swimming Board of Directors told me that he though the USOC was too screwed up internally to be able to handle the Olympic athletes properly, not to mention the Paralympic athletes. He thought the Paralympic athletes would do well to create their own governing organization capable of doing
independent fund raising, etc.

Neither idea exactly fills me with joy.





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