Capture Cardiff: 50 years of the Chameleons

British disability swimmers won nine medals at the International Paralympic Commission World Short Course Championships in Rio de Janeiro last weekend.

Liz Johnson, who also won gold in Beijing in 2008, set a new world record in the women’s 100m breaststroke to take home another gold medal.

Special Olympics

As seen by the coverage of this feat, the Paralympics, for people who are physically disabled, tend to steal the limelight in disability sport because of their association with the Olympics. The equivalent for people with a learning disability is the Special Olympics and Cardiff has been right at the very heart of the competition since it first came to the UK.

In 1959, the late Joyce Robinson (below) founded the Cardiff Chameleons, the country’s first swimming club for people with a learning disability.

(Source: www.cardiffchameleons.co.uk)

The Chameleons went on to become the first group in Great Britain to register with the Special Olympics in 1979 and has been involved in the games ever since.

The slideshow above shows pictures of Team Wales at the 2001 Special Olympics held in Cardiff and the 2005 Special Olympics held in Glasgow.

(Source: www.cardiffchameleons.co.uk)

Cardiff Chameleons

A fitting way to celebrate the club’s 50th year therefore was to attend the 2009 Special Olympics in Leicester. The club was enormously successful and took home around 100 medals.

But this wasn’t a one-off for the team as Chameleons’ swimming coach Pam Bailey explains: “We go to quite a few competitions all year round, and this year we also went to the Special Olympics European Swimming in Majorca.”

At that competition, the swimmers won nine Gold medals, five Silver medals and four Bronze medals. Despite this however, the club does not cater solely for swimmers wanting to take part in competition, they also teach new members to swim and the focus is very much on ensuring that the members enjoy themselves. Another of the swimming coaches, Robin O’Donovan, said: “I’m here for them to enjoy themselves. If I say: ‘Have you enjoyed yourself?’ and they say ‘Yeah!’ Great! That’s what I like.”

Community Aid

The club used to have its own pool at Ely Hospital, but sadly this facility closed in 1996. The club was only able to keep going because the club’s members had negotiated the free use of other swimming pools before the closure. As Pam Bailey says: “We wouldn’t be able to run the club if it wasn’t for that.”

Gymnastics, Athletics and Cycling

Due to the club’s massive success in swimming, they decided to expand into different activities such as gymnastics, athletics and cycling. As some of the swimmers and athletes started to get older, they began looking for a sport that required less physical exertion and so the Cardiff Chameleons Bowls Club was born.

Elaine Daw, the Chameleons’ Secretary said: “Our founder member, Mrs. Joyce Robinson, felt it was a good opportunity for our members to try another sport.”

The club meets every Friday at the Cardiff Bowling Club at the Welsh Institute of Sport and regularly enters competitions. Notably, the team travelled with the swimmers to the 2009 Special Olympics and were as successful as their water-borne counterparts. Their mixed doubles teams took Gold with Ceri-Anne Davies and Angus Pirrie, and Silver with Louise Daw and Alan Beech.

The Chameleons celebrate their success at the Leicester Special Olympics

From Left to Right: Angus Pirrie, Ann-Marie Coles, Ceri-Anne Davies, Janet Broomfield, Louise Daw and Alan Beech

Disability Sport Wales

All the sports run by the Chameleons are brought under the umbrella of Disability Sport Wales.

Joanna Coates-McGrath (left), Cardiff’s regional development officer, said of the organisation:

“It’s basically increasing participation opportunities for disabled people. All ages, all abilities, all sports, [just creating] more opportunities out there for them to take part in whatever environment that might be.”

Part of that involves setting up new clubs for which there is often a demand. However, which clubs are ratified depends very much on the virtues of each proposal as Joanna Coates-McGrath explains:

The organisation does have a performance strand, but all of the teams facilitated by Disability Sport Wales cater for both competitively-minded people and for those who are there to make friends.

The Future

Many of the people closely connected with the club have gone on to coach the side. For example, Pam Bailey’s brother was one of the first Chameleons, and Robin O’Donovan’s son was also a member.

Now, one of the swimmers is hoping to pass on his experience to the next generation. David Parsons, who went to his first swimming club aged just seven and has competed in numerous competitions, would like to be a full-time coach.

David Parsons: Pictured at the Special Olympics in Glasgow (2005)

(Source: www.cardiffchameleons.co.uk)

He says: “What I like most is seeing people coming on. I like to see them get to the same level as me. I want to be a full time coach by the time I’m 30.”

With young members coming through and taking over the responsibility for the club, the Chameleons should have no trouble surviving for another 50 years.

For more information about times, venues and other sports, visit: http://www.cardiffchameleons.co.uk or http://www.disabilitysportwales.org/