Every Body Moves, an initiative launched by ParalympicsGB, will be announcing the winner of Parasport Club of the Year this coming weekend. Eleven Parasport clubs across the UK are participating, two of which are in Bristol.
Project manager Barry Lloyd says “This year we will be picking our top 3 from the public vote and our judges from the lived experience advisory board in a Eurovision style vote.”
Phoenix Allstars cheerleading is based in Warmeley, their CHEERAbilities and Adaptive cheerleading teams are leading the field in the English Parasport cheerleading scene. Coach and athlete Shakira Wynter has been part of the team for over 14 years ” We are really inclusive and have done an amazing job adapting the sport to suit everyone”.
Wynter tells us “a highlight would as a team being selected to travel to America to represent England in the ICU World Championships” and the team has been selected a second time.
In April the Phoenix Allstars will come up against over 119 countries from all over the world at the ICU World Cheerleading Championships in the adaptive abilities category.
The Wave project is the second club to be nominated to have a facility in Bristol. The project branches out across the UK, one of its clubs is in South Gloustershire.
They describe themselves as a “slice of the ocean in Bristol” with courses catering to people of all ages and abilities, including those with sensory, learning and physical impairments.
Lloyd has been running the Every Body Moves competitions for Club of the Month and Club of the year for almost four years now “This year’s winners will be the fourth Club of the year for us. Having started running the monthly club of the month in 2020.”
Every Body Move’s mission is to shine the spotlight on positive examples of inclusion and accessibility in sport and physical activity across the whole of the UK. Lloyd says “We want to celebrate those in the community making accessible sport happen for the disabled community, and also empower others to do the same and consider how they can make their clubs more inclusive too.” .
The Every Body Moves site shows that around 8,000 opportunities are posted for people every day from local clubs.
However Lloyd says that although “there are many clubs charities, governing bodies and national sports disability organizations doing amazing work to make sport and physical activity for more disabled people…there is still more to do”.
