The Paralympic Order, the highest honour a person connected with the Paralympic Movement can receive, has been awarded to Canada Snowboard Executive Director and Paralympian Patrick Jarvis by International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons at a ceremony held at Casa Italia during the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Paralympics, on 16 March.
Jarvis competed in athletics at the Barcelona 1992 Paralympics before successfully transitioning to sports administration.
He was part of the Canadian team mission staff at the Atlanta 1996 Paralympics and was the Chef de Mission at the Nagano 1998 Winter Games. That same year he was elected President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) serving two terms until 2006.
Between 2002 and 2003, he was on the Board of Directors of the successful Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation, eventually becoming a Board Director of the Organising Committee that delivered the Games.
In 2005 Jarvis was elected to the IPC Governing Board and served three terms, being involved and leading several working groups. This included the creation of self-assessment tools and the development of the IPC Strategic Plans and Sport Strategic Plans.
Within the IPC he chaired the Development Committee and was appointed to the IOC 2012 Games Evaluation Commission, assessing bids from Paris, Madrid, New York City, Moscow and eventual winners London.
In PyeongChang he is serving a dual purpose as Canada Snowboard Executive Director and, as a Proud Paralympian and Calgarian, he is focussed on a potential bid for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games by his home city.
Parsons said: "Under his leadership he transformed the CPC from a Games to a Movement based organisation. It is no coincidence that while he was in charge, the CPC enjoyed some of their best finishes at a Paralympic Games.
"As IPC Governing Board Member, he provided valuable and balanced input from an athlete’s perspective. Over 12 years, he was a hugely popular member.
"He possessed a remarkable talent during meetings to conclude very long debates by providing a motion that brought all the different views together. When he spoke, you knew you were going to hear great words of wisdom and something of note.
"He was always a very active and always very vocal, especially when it came to matters of good governance and ethics.
"Away from his work responsibilities, Patrick is a wonderful person to be around. Armed with a great sense of humour, he is always full of passion and positive energy. He is an asset to any organisation."
Previous recipients of the Paralympic Order have included former IOC President Jacques Rogge, Lord Sebastian Coe and Dr. Whang Youn Dai and former IPC President Sir Philip Craven.
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Notes to the Editor
For further information, please contact Craig Spence, IPC Director of Media and Communications on e-mail: craig.spence@paralympic.org. Alternatively, please visit www.paralympic.org.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement. It co-ordinates the organisation of the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games, and serves as the International Federation for 10 sports, for which it supervises and co-ordinates the World Championships and other competitions. The IPC’s vision is to enable Para athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world.
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