Last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the idea of having an Olympics for people with mental health problems and there have been productive discussions between the London 2012 Organising Committee, the International Olympic Committee and the IPC which have resulted in a provisional schedule which will be confirmed over the next 18 months.

Sir Philip Craven, President of the IOC, told our Sports reporter Peter Shankly: “The concept of having a games entirely for people with a formal psychiatric diagnosis is controversial. As Cardiff will be the first ever mental health Olympics we envisage that there will be some organisational difficulties over the next two years. At present we have a list of over 200 events, however many of these have yet to be finalised”.

He continued: “The IOC has worked closely with the Royal College of Psychiatrists and many competitions that we initially believed would be acceptable have had to be reevaluated. For example many of the shooting events have had to be abandoned altogether due to the high level of clinically depressed athletes taking part in the games. Similarly many of the long distance running events may prove problematic for the paranoid schizophrenic competitors in that part of their illness can involve a delusional belief that they are being followed or chased. With the possible exception of the runner at the back of the pack, it is easy to see how such events could exacerbate symptoms and lead to a worsening of their condition”.

Other events under review include Fencing, Archery and Taekwondo. Katharine Marsh from the mental health charity Mind said yesterday: “Cardiff 2010 is a wonderful opportunity to bring mental health into the public domain. However the organizers will have to be sensitive to the complex needs of the competitors. For example the horizontal bar requires great concentration. One mistake could result in serious injury. Whether it would be safe to have Tourette’s sufferer’s effing and blinding from the sidelines is debatable”.

Ms Marsh continued: “Similarly there would be problems if people with generalised panic disorder were allowed to compete in the 10 metre high diving event. My fear is that there could be a lot of athletes stuck on the top of the board paralysed with fear, unable to dive and unable to go back down the stairs, while others with a social phobia would just hurl themselves into the pool in order to get away from the crowd. The last thing I want is for the games to reinforce negative stereotypes. I would like to thank the IOC for agreeing not to use the traditional starting gun in track and field events”.

The IOC confirmed today that the verbal instruction, ‘Off you go’ will be used to start races in Cardiff 2010.

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