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00:00Let's speak to Gemma Stevenson, a wheelchair tennis player and sports journalist.
00:08She's in Paris.
00:09Thanks so much for joining us on the programme, Gemma, on World Roundup.
00:14It's great to have you.
00:15Now, you're a world champion, you know exactly what it's like to compete on the world's stage.
00:20I can imagine you know exactly what the athletes are feeling like right now with just one day
00:24to go until the Paralympics.
00:27Yeah, I mean, I'm a world champion in cheerleading, so adaptive cheerleading, so I used to cheerlead
00:34in my wheelchair.
00:35And I'd go to the World Championships in Orlando.
00:39And yes, it was in Disneyland, because everybody always asks.
00:43And yeah, it's the night, it's the night before the competition starts, it's the night before
00:47the opening ceremony.
00:48So you're naturally doing everything you can to kind of celebrate what's about to happen.
00:55But also, you've got to keep to like nutrition plans and eating the right stuff and having
01:01enough sleep, which is quite hard, actually, when you're at a big event like the Paralympics,
01:06like I was at the World Championships over in Orlando.
01:11It's really, you've really got to keep focused, because there's so much going on around you.
01:17It's very, it's very distracting, or it can be very distracting.
01:21Gemma, of course, mobility and accessibility is a big part of these games.
01:26You know, Paris's metro system is over 100 years old.
01:29The head of the regional transport system here in Paris admitted yesterday that the
01:33metro is near impossible for disabled people to navigate.
01:38I think you're in Paris right now.
01:39How's it been for you getting around?
01:42It's been interesting.
01:43So I'm here working as media at the minute.
01:47We have media transport, but there just seems to be a lack of awareness of where you can
01:54open a bus door and let a ramp out.
01:57So today, for example, when I was traveling this morning, a bus driver let a ramp out
02:04right in front of a tree and then wondered why it took me ages to try and get in.
02:11That's quite shocking.
02:13We've also had the president of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pacres, speak on this issue.
02:18Let's take a listen to what she had to say.
02:24We still have to make the 13 historic lines within Paris accessible.
02:29So let's not kid ourselves.
02:31Even if we were to implement a major accessibility plan, there will still potentially be technical
02:36impossibilities in some stations.
02:43This could be the project of the next few decades.
02:46And I'm going to tell you, I think it's a winning bet.
02:52It's a winning bet because as people live longer, disability is going to become a major
02:56issue.
02:57It will affect the whole population.
02:59It won't just be people who have had an accident.
03:02It will be the population who at some point will find themselves with reduced mobility.
03:08So Gemma, Pacres saying there that making the metro accessible is a project that could
03:12take decades to materialise.
03:15Can you lay out for us what kind of impact having such an inaccessible metro will have
03:20during these games?
03:22I think it'll be interesting to see how spectators and media and those involved with the games
03:30get around.
03:31I know the athletes, it's quite accessible for them to get to the places they need to
03:35get to.
03:36They have specific athlete transport as well.
03:39I think you're probably going to find a lot of frustration.
03:43Often as a disabled person, if you haven't got the access that you require, we all admit
03:48that nothing's going to be perfect.
03:50Like your minister said, nothing's going to be perfect.
03:53There are still going to be challenges.
03:55It's just the, is there, could more have been done before now?
04:02But I will say that the one thing that kept a smile on my face today is the one thing
04:07that often makes a Paralympic Games, which is those volunteers that stand there.
04:14And I mean, I'm quite calm and I just say, is there any easier way to do it?
04:18But I do know that they probably put up with some lovely words from other people.
04:25And they just sit there with a smile on their face and try and find a solution to adapt.
04:30And I think that's the thing, like I was in the, I actually performed in the opening ceremony
04:34of London 2012.
04:36And I went down to a lot, you know, 12 years ago, I went down to watch a lot of the sport.
04:40And what made those games a lot of the time was those volunteers who were greeting people
04:45at venues or on transport or at hotels.
04:50And being that face that people could see every day.
04:52And I think actually from my first two days in Paris, that's what I've really noticed.
04:57The volunteers are amazing and they are so brilliant.
05:03And I think they are going to be what makes the difference at Paris 2024.
05:07I think the volunteers have definitely been the heroes during these games.
05:13Let's pretend that the Paralympics have happened now.
05:15What sort of legacy do you think the Games will leave behind?
05:19I think it's less of a legacy like London was, where we tried to make London more accessible
05:24for the Games.
05:25I think it's maybe a legacy of realising that Paris isn't as accessible as it should be.
05:33And maybe taking action forward from that.
05:36You know, I've been, I've seen one of my friends was here and they're also a wheelchair user.
05:40And they said actually, for the first time being in Paris, they had a restaurant manager
05:45come forward to them and say, I'm really sorry, we realise we haven't got a ramp and we're
05:50not accessible, but we're working on it, we promise.
05:55So it's maybe that the legacy is that realisation of what actually needs to be done for, to
06:02make the city more accessible, to make the metro more accessible, to avoid those really
06:07long bus journeys that you have to take as a wheelchair user, that sometimes take somebody
06:11who's not a wheelchair user, you know, only 20 minutes to do.
06:15Hopefully it does usher in some change.
06:18Gemma, tell us what you're looking forward to seeing the most during the Paralympics.
06:22I'm guessing tennis is somewhere up there.
06:25Oh, yeah, tennis is going to figure high up.
06:27But I think I come here every year to report on Roland Garros.
06:30And what I love about the atmosphere at Roland Garros is how the French fans get behind the
06:35French athletes.
06:38They are really, really passionate about their athletes.
06:42And I actually love it when a British player plays a French player at Roland Garros, because
06:47you know, the atmosphere is going to be like 100 percent brilliant.
06:51And I'm hoping we're going to get some of those as well, because they really do.
06:55You know, I don't know how much the crowd realise, but you are kind of the extra player
07:00on court and you can influence a match just by getting behind athletes.
07:05For sure. I think, yeah, the athletes definitely feed off the atmosphere in stadiums.
07:10Gemma, I want to thank you so much for joining us here on World Roundup.
07:13We really appreciate you joining us.
07:16So that's Gemma Stevenson, a wheelchair tennis player and sports journalist there.
07:20Thanks so much for watching. Do stay tuned.
07:22There's plenty more to come here on France 24.