Smyth and Paralympics have come a long way

ATHLETICS: Just as Baron de Coubertin's idea of taking part was lost in the Olympic gold rush, so too has gone the idea that the Paralympics are the friendlier side of sport

GOOD NEWS is rare these days, and every glittering success coming out of the Paralympics in Beijing over the past week or so has been like a double shot of endorphin straight into the brain. Where will we get our fix as autumn softly closes in? It's been impossible to avoid the inspiring stories of triumphs and heroics, even though one newspaper, quite close to home, ran the unfortunate headline Amputated Limb Battle Reaches Final Leg regarding Oscar Pistorius and his quest for three gold medals.

Five hours of continuous coverage from the BBC was also a little tiresome at times but shifting the Paralympics to the centre of the sporting stage has gone a long way toward addressing some of the misconceptions about what the event is all about.

Just like the Olympics a couple of weeks before, the competition in Beijing throughout the 10 days of the Paralympics was more than just spirited; it was fierce.

The once-yawning gap between the Olympics and the Paralympics was at times indiscernible.

Just as Baron de Coubertin's original idea of taking part was soon lost in the Olympic gold rush, so too has gone the idea that the Paralympics somehow represent the friendlier side of sport. Winning medals at the Paralympics is now just as ruthless a business as elsewhere, along with the fame and fortune that comes with it.

It wasn't just the way athletes went about winning medals, but also how they actually won them. Winning margins came as thick as they did fast, and that raised the usual question over the gradient of the playing field.

All athletes at the Paralympics are equal, but some are more equal than others. Of course, we've known that about the Olympics for years.

So just when it seemed I was done with all the hard questioning about Usain Bolt - was he for real and was he actually going to run 9.5 had he not slowed down. etc, etc? - along comes our own Jason Smyth to start it all over again.

In winning his sprint double with a double world record, Smyth has drawn the inevitable similarity with the gangly Jamaican - and that's fair enough. But the similarity doesn't end there. Like Bolt, Smyth is just 21; like Bolt, he was able to celebrate a long way before the finish line; and like Bolt, he has now become something of an overnight sensation - from nowhere to The Late, Late Show.

The problem is when people ask me what I think of Smyth there is a slight hesitancy; the question is left to linger a little, as if they're almost afraid to ask.

Are they questioning his visual impairment? Are they questioning the reality of his performance - the same way that for every one person who believes in Bolt there is another who doesn't? Or are they just being polite about it because up until this week they wouldn't have recognised Smyth if they knocked him off his bicycle?

Again there is a distinct similarity with Bolt. Nothing Bolt did in Beijing surprised me because for the past two or three years all I'd been hearing was he was going to be the next superstar of track and field. He had the talent, he was being properly coached, and if there was such a thing as natural progression then Bolt would run a world record.

The same with Smyth: two years ago I made my annual trip to the Irish Schools Athletics championships in Tullamore and left with the names of two athletes foremost on my mind - sprinter Jason Smyth, and distance runner David McCarthy. (McCarthy, by the way, is still progressing nicely at Providence College, Rhode Island.)

Smyth won the 100-200 double at those championships in the colours of Limavady Grammar School - one of his several sprint doubles as a schoolboy.

It was only afterwards his coach Stephen Maguire - who had spent a brief period as Athletics Ireland director of coaching - explained that Smyth was suffering from Stargardt's Disease, a hereditary degenerative visual impairment that can affect central vision, though not necessarily peripheral vision.

In other words, Smyth was already a highly accomplished and trained athlete. He's been asked several times how he feels his visual impairment affects his physical performance, and he's been honest about it - saying he doesn't know because that's the only way he's ever known how to run. The reality is Smyth is a superbly talented and capable athlete who was always going places despite his visual impairment, not the other way around.

Though born and raised in Derry, the matter of which country he would represent was decided early on. When it came to identifying his sporting talent, the Irish Sports Council were first in line, and back in 2006, when Smyth was still at school, he was awarded a contract category grant - the highest possible - worth €40,000. Later in 2006, when he won gold medals in the 100 metres and 200 metres at the Paralympic World Athletics Championships in Assen, he got a €10,000 bonus.

Smyth has retained that €40,000 annual grant in the two years since - including the latest announcement in February of this year. Derval O'Rourke was the only other athlete so richly rewarded. For comparison purposes, Paul Hession was categorised only as world class, receiving €20,000 - exactly half of what Smyth has been getting.

Such a heavy investment soon paid off. Last year, Smyth improved his 100-metre best to 10.72 seconds and his 200-metre best to 21.44 - in both instances he is second only to Hession on the Irish ranking list. Clearly, the only question then was whether to concentrate on the Paralympics or the Olympics - or both.

In June of this year, Smyth improved his 100-metre best to 10.53 - which again, for those following his career a little more closely, makes his recent performance in Beijing entirely believable. One of the other things that has been overlooked in his progress of the past week is that Paralympics world records can only be set in Paralympics events, so while Smyth has been breaking records with apparent ease - improving the 100-metre best to 10.81, then 10.62 - his personal best remains the 10.53 he ran in able-bodied competition.

Likewise, last year's 200-metre best of 21.44 was only marginally improved by the 21.43 he ran in Beijing last Tuesday.

Given his age, Maguire rightly steered him towards the Paralympics on this particular occasion, but it is now inevitable that Smyth will be chasing an Olympic qualifying time in London in four years' time. There will be nothing usual about that.

Pistorius has every ambition of doing the same for South Africa, and others already have. Although the Paralympics were set up to run parallel to the Olympics, through athletes like Smyth, the lines are being blurred and the rewards being reaped.