Guadalajara's Accommodating 2011 Parapan Am Games

For Mexico and more specifically, the country’s second largest city and the capital of the state of Jalisco, Guadalajara, 2011 could certainly be called the year of the major international multi-sport event. From 10/14-30, 2011 Guadalajara was host to approximately 6000 athletes representing 42 countries during the XVI Pan American Games. Shortly thereafter, from 11/12-20/2011, Guadalajara will be the host city for the IV Parapan American Games.

The Parapan American Games are a quadrennial event, held the year prior to the Paralympics, for athletes with physical disabilities- mobility disabilities, amputations, visual impairments, and cerebral palsy. Originating in 1999, these games will be the fourth conducted for athletes from the Western Hemisphere and only the second time, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2007 being the first, that the host city was also the site for the Pan American Games. However, this is the second time that Mexico has been the site of the Parapan Games as Mexico City hosted the first although it was not the host of the Pan American Games in 1999 as those games were held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

In Guadalajara, approximately 1500 athletes from 26 nations will be competing in 13 different sports and subdisciplines with a total of 379 events. The thirteen sports are archery, athletics/track and field, boccia (similar to bocce), cycling, football 5-a-side, goal ball, judo, power lifting, swimming, table tennis, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair tennis. A majority of the events are direct qualifiers for the 2012 Paralympics that will be conducted in London, England which will also be host to the summer Olympic Games that year; as of 2012 and thereafter, the host city of the Olympics, both the summer and winter games, will be committed to also host the Paralympics. The focus of the Parapan Games is to emphasize the participants’ athletic achievements rather than their disability.

While the 2011 Pan American Games were conducted not only in Guadalajara but also in the Jaliscan communities of Tapalpa, Puerto Vallarta, Ciudad Guzman, and Lagos de Moreno, the Parapan Games will be held exclusively in Guadalajara and its environs. All of the venues used for these games, including the Pan American Village where the athletes will be housed, had been utilized during the Pan American Games and with planning and forethought by the organizers had been physically modified or designed to accommodate the needs of the Parapan athletes. In addition to the Telmex Athletics Stadium which will be used for the opening and closing ceremonies along with the athletic events, the following are the venues to be used: Pan American Archery Stadium for archery; Code Dome for wheelchair basketball; Pan American Velodrome for track cycling; San Rafael Gymnasium for goalball; Pan American Hockey Stadium for football 5-a-side; Code II Gymnasium for table tennis; Telcel Tennis Complex for wheelchair tennis; Pan American Volleyball Stadium for sitting volleyball; Weightlifting Forum for power lifting; Multipurpose Gymnasium for judo; and Scotia Bank Aquatic Center for swimming. After the games are completed, all of these facilities will be used for the training of Mexico’s athletes.

In addition to making all of the venues and their facilities “handicapped accessible” to the athletes, all transportation to be arranged for and used by the athletes have also been designed or modified with the needs of the athletes in mind. Visiting IV Parapan Game official delegations from various participating countries who have toured the facilities/sites have expressed confidence that the special needs of their athletes, overall, will be more than satisfactorily met. Consequently, these games have been developed to be as “user friendly” as possible.

However, as an American expatriate who has lived in Mexico for the last few years and who has traveled quite a bit to many of the country’s regions, it is, unfortunately extremely apparent that Mexico is not particularly “user friendly” to persons with disabilities, especially to its own citizens. Although such major cities as Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey along with some of the country’s major beach resorts and northernmost cities along the U.S. border have in recent years become more handicapped accessible (particularly in those areas frequented by tourists), especially in terms of wheelchair accessibility, the same decidedly cannot be said for the majority of the country, both rural and urban. For a nation that is highly reliant on buses for transportation, both public and long-distance, the vast majority of the vehicles do not accommodate wheelchairs or persons with visual disabilities. Outside of the major cities (if even provided there), there are few ramps leading into buildings or on the streets/sidewalks, nor is there much or any designated handicapped parking. Moreover, from what I have observed, particularly in smaller communities, even the offices of health professionals and medical clinics are lacking in any accommodations for persons with physical disabilities.

Therefore, here is hoping that not only will the IV Parapan Games be a rewardingly accommodating experience for all of the athletic participants but that the event will to at least some degree, particularly through Mexico’s media coverage, raise the consciousness of the nation to take action to further provide the requisite accessibility to those individuals with disabilities be they Mexican nationals, foreign expatriates, or foreign tourists. Oftentimes, I think that in Mexico that the phrase "handicapped accommodations" is a cruel oxymoron. You see, as for me, the way most of the country is now vis-à-vis handicapped accessibility, the last thing that I would want to be in Mexico is to be poor and experiencing a disability, permanent or otherwise!