Following news that sailing has been dropped from the 2020 Paralympic Games Programme, The Cruising Association is joining the campaign backed by its patron, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, to fight the decision.
The International Paralympic Committee announced at the end of last month that sailing was not on the list of sports in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston has been backing a petition, which had 14,500 signatures in the first few days, to reinstate the sport:
Sir Robin posted the following message on Facebook:
This is disgraceful decision. At a time when we are demonstrating that disability does not necessarily mean deprivation of sporting opportunities and encouraging other countries to follow this example, the “authorities” remove the peak to which all sports people aspire.
The ISAF Disabled Sailing Committee (IFDS), RYA and British Marine Federation, of which the CA is a member, are all supporting the fight to have sailing reinstated into the Tokyo games in 2020.
Team GBR won the first ever Paralympic Sailing Gold Medal in 1996.
If you would like to support the petition, please click on this link: https://www.change.org/p/international-paralympic-committee