News
A Driving Force
Paul Gains
Jan Bockweg’s name won’t be found on any world rankings list but the 64 year old Dutchman can likely rhyme off all the names that are.
Since 2000 Bockweg has been the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS) athletics coordinator and also serves on the International Paralympic Committee as Athletics Committee Chairperson. Behind the scenes he is one of the driving forces behind disabled sport helping direct policy and initiatives. Maintaining the rankings is but one of his duties.
“This past spring, after the executive board of the IWAS I was appointed the IWAS events coordinator,” he says with pride. “I am to coordinate the next junior wheelchair world championships, the 2007 IWAS World Games, the 2009 World juniors and the world championships for all IWAS sports to get it on a better level and a higher quality. I am proud, I can say I am an event manager.”
A former marathon runner - with a best time of 2 hours 52 minutes - Bockweg lives in Emmeloord in the north of Holland, a region that until the second world war was underwater. Dikes were erected and the water eventually pumped out. Now it is fertile agricultural land. With his fertile imagination Bockweg got involved in able bodied sport in 1985 when he managed the Dutch national track and field championships. Within five years he was sought out to manage sport for the disabled at the highest level.
Naturally, he can look back at the progress made in sport for the disabled with a great deal of pride and enthusiasm.
“It was amazing to see the racing wheelchairs back in the ‘80’s,” he recalls, “they had four wheels. Now the technology in the racing chairs is amazing. They have reached a certain standard and that is the maximum. You can see the quality in competition when you see the times. Each year the times are getting faster and faster. Last week the 100m class T54 world record was broken with a time of 13.88 seconds. And David Weir (Great Britain) for the first time also took the world 400m record under 47 seconds (46.89 seconds) in Ibach. That is also amazing.”
Another sign of progress he notes, is the fact that many elite able bodied competitions regularly include events for the disabled in their programs. Bockweg was involved with the recent International Association of Athletics Federations Grand Prix meeting in Hengelo and points to that competition as just one example where wheelchair athletes are appreciated for their athletic prowess.
“For three years the Hengelo GP meeting has been inviting wheelchair athletes and amputee athletes. That is also important,” he declares. “The press and the public have discovered that disabled athletes are also elite athletes and they can make great performances. For example, we had 15,000 people amazed to see the wheelchair 100m in Hengelo and, for the first time, it was on live television. We didn’t believe, ten years ago, we would be invited to participate in IAAF Grand Prix meetings and be on live television.”
Bockweg does a fair amount of travelling in his position though he says he tries to restrict his travel to one week out of every month. In the last year alone he has been in Jordan and Ethiopia to make sports presentations, and he has attended meetings and competitions in Germany, France, the U.K. Finland and Sweden. It takes commitment.
Among the initiatives he is focusing on is a push for the inclusion of events for amputee athletes within major competitions and in particular for field events which often get sidelined. Bockweg says the organisation must find ways to make the field events more attractive to spectators. Looking ahead to the next decade he has a clear vision of what the world of disabled sport will look like.
“I think the standards will be higher, the prize money, like in able-bodied sport, will get bigger so we get more and more professional athletes,” he foresees, “Track events will be reduced to 100m, 400m , 800m and 1,500m, maybe still the 5,000m but no more 200m or 10,000m track events.”
“The 10,000m will be a road race. We are already working on this. I am working to make a road race ranking and we will try this year to start the 10km road race world championships, half marathon and marathon rankings. If not, then next year we will have a 10km and half marathon road race championships and every two years a marathon world championships.”
Jan Bockweg has logged many miles for disabled sport but he knows there are miles to go before he rests.