Paralympic Sport and Inclusion – The Counter

Mr. Director,
Andrés Bello University, through its Institute of Sport and Welfare, signed an agreement with the Paralympic Committee of Chile (COPACHI). In this ceremony, the president of COPACHI, Sebastián Villavicencio, said that the next Pan American and Parapan American Games Santiago 2023 will give a great opportunity to change the vision of sport, in general, and disability in Chile.
This phrase, simply, makes us reflect on the fact that sport is not about the achievement of medals or world rankings, but about the innate sense of every person, regardless of their abilities and abilities, of playing and relating to others.
That Chile hosts such an important sporting event is presented as an opportunity to educate in the values that sport well done delivers to its participants. Also, that two sporting events are carried out in which, despite differences in performance and adequacy of regulations, they do not cease to be what sport is: play and relate through the competition that the game means.
Saying that sport well done is an opportunity to educate in values leads us to talk about discrimination. Sometimes you hear it said that selecting discriminates. However, sport is open to all and does not discriminate.
Yes, sport levels participation to make the game fair and collaborative. I believe that as a university we have taken an important step in terms of responding to our institutional seal of being an inclusive institution, so we thank COPACHI for this opportunity and hope that this will mark the way for other houses of studies to see sport as the opportunity for true inclusion.
Jaime Fillol,

Director of the Institute of Sport and Well-being U. Andrés Bello

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Original source in Spanish