Legg takes the lead

David Legg, an accomplished Mount Royal University sports professor and researcher, has been appointed the 2010 – 2011 president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC).

The CPC brings together 43 member sport organizations to lead the development of a Paralympic sport system that enables Canadian athletes to reach the podium at the Paralympic Games — which in turn can inspire all Canadians with a disability to get involved in sport.

Currently the Program Coordinator and Associate Professor Bachelor of Applied Entrepreneurship in Sport & Recreation, Legg learned of his appointment early last week.

World-wide, the determination to create opportunities for athletes with a disability to compete is known as the Paralympic Movement and Legg has been a part of it for almost 20 years dating back to his time as Program Manager of Ontario Wheelchair Sport in 1992.
 
He has served on the CPC board of directors for 11 years, most recently as vice-president.

Night and day

“It’s night and day,” says Legg. “When I first became involved, we had a part-time staff person, but no office.”

At that time, the Committee was scrambling to find a way to fund a team for the Paralympics in Sydney in 2000.

Then things began to change, thanks to the initiative of a new champion of the CPC’s cause.

“Lethbridge Senator, Joyce Fairbairn, had gone to the Paralympic Winter Games in Nagano in 1998, met the athletes and fell in love with the movement,” Legg says.

“She decided to take it on as her project and was able to negotiate last-minute funding through the federal government, that enabled us to send a team to Sydney.”

The Committee hasn’t looked back

“Just last week, Minister [Gary] Lunn, the minister responsible for amateur sport in Canada, announced that we’re getting $5 million per year over the next five years,” Legg says excitedly.

That type of financial support and sustainability is one of the most significant changes in Legg’s 11 years with the Committee.

“Financially the difference is night and day … we have a staff that will probably be about 20 and we’re moving into new offices, so the changes just from that perspective are significant,” he says.

Awareness erupts at Vancouver Olympics

Aside from being sustainable from both a financial and an operational standpoint, the other most significant difference Legg has noticed during his time with the Committee is the change in public awareness about Paralympic sports.

He cites hosting the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver this year as one example of how much the level of awareness has grown.

“The Games had the highest television coverage ever, I think we had the largest print media coverage, so all of these items lead to greater public awareness,” says Legg.

Legg has also worked with local wheelchair athletic clubs by providing Mount Royal facilities as a venue for their practices, clinics and games. He says this also increases the visibility of the sport.

“One of my goals in hosting events like that on campus is simply to broaden the perspective of our student body,” explains Legg.

“If I’m teaching students in Physical Education and Recreation Services, I want them to be comfortable when a person with a disability comes into their fitness centre or their club."

Although the Paralympic Movement and the Canadian Paralympic Committee have grown and increased their profile over the past decade, Legg says the CPC has ambitious plans for the future.

Five-year plan

“We’ve just released a new five-year strategic plan … and our goal is to be the leading Paralympic nation in five years,” says Legg.

He adds that the goal of being a global leader is measurable by various counts, including how Canada fares on the podium in upcoming world competition including the London Olympics, the Pan-American Games and Para-Pan-American Games, which are being hosted in Toronto in 2015.

The other vision that Legg has for the Committee is creating a grassroots system that will enable children with impairments to participate in sports through increased access and opportunities.

“That’s easy enough in bigger centres — Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal — but we need to do a better job of increasing awareness across the board,” Legg says.

He goes on to say that the Committee wants to accomplish this not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it will help Canada reach its goals of being a global leader by discovering and developing better athletes.

— Fred Cheney, Nov. 4, 2010