Treacy backing for Beijing

IRISH Sports Council (ISC) chief executive John Treacy is confident Beijing will be a suitable venue for the Paralympic Games.

Controversy hit the Games early last month when a training manual for volunteers contained disparaging remarks about disabled people, calling them “stubborn, controlling, defensive” and adding that they had “a strong sense of inferiority”.

Legendary Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser, who won gold in the 100m freestyle at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games, has already claimed she will not be attending either the Olympics or Paralympics in Beijing because of the treatment of Paralympic athletes she witnessed on the streets of the Chinese capital in the mid-1990s.