DC13-353 October 10, 2013
BT supports Nathan Stephens and British Sledge Hockey Association in their bid for a place at 2014 Winter Paralympic Games
BT has today announced a partnership with the British Sledge Hockey Association to help the British team's bid to compete at the Paralympic Games in Sochi next year.
As a long-time supporter of the Paralympic movement in the UK, BT is supporting one of its BT Ambassadors, Nathan Stephens, and his British Sledge Hockey teammates, in their attempt to qualify for the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games.
Nathan competed in the javelin competition at the London 2012 Paralympic Summer Games and has been part of the BT Ambassador Programme for four years.
Before becoming one of the most elite Paralympic track and field athletes in the world, Nathan was passionate about sledge hockey and competed with the last GB team to reach the Winter Paralympics in 2006 in Italy.
Nathan and his British Sledge Hockey teammates are now aiming to compete in the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
However, to be invited to the Winter Paralympic Games, they must first compete in a qualifying tournament in Turin later this month and have asked for BT's help to fund their preparations.
The British team will compete in a six-team tournament in Turin between 20-26 October against Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea and Sweden. The three top-ranked teams at the end of the competition will then be invited to the Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
British Sledge Hockey Association Elite Programme Director, John Neville, said: BT is a long-time supporter of the Paralympic movement in the UK and supported Nathan with his athletics career. For them to come on board and support the sledge team is another example of their commitment to the progression of disability sport and really shows how far as a sport we have come in a short space time. The support from BT and all our corporate partners such as Planet Ice and Peter Harrison Foundation means that we can travel to Italy and give ourselves the best chance of making it to the Winter Paralympic Games.
BT Ambassador Nathan Stephens said: BT has supported me for the past four years and when I told them that I really needed their help, they came good again. They have been involved with Paralympic sport for over 20 years and their support to me and my teammates means that we can go to Turin and try and secure a place at the Winter Paralympic Games. As a team we are in the best shape of our lives and we will be doing everything in our power to qualify for Sochi.
Suzi Williams, Group Marketing and Brand Director at BT said: Nathan is a great example of someone who continues to strive forward. He had a disappointing London 2012 in the javelin competition but it demonstrates his depth of character that he is bouncing-back with the determination to try and make it to the Winter Games in Sochi. When we heard about the help that the British Sledge Hockey Association needed, we were happy to help .
BT is supporting the British Sledge Hockey Association with a grant to lessen the funding gap in the team's preparations and will become an Official Supporter' to the team.
BT will keep its 89,000 employees up to date with Nathan Stephens and his teammates' progress through a range of internal and external communications activity.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
BT has supported the British Paralympic Association since 1989 when BT became the organisations first commercial partner.
BT is committed to support the BPA until 2016.
BT was the official communications services partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
British Sledge Hockey Association
The British Sledge Hockey Association was formed in 1995 and is chaired by the Paralympian, Matt Lloyd
It is the National Governing Body for Sledge Hockey for in the United Kingdom and is a member of the British Paralympic Association
Since 2009 there has been significant growth in the sport of Sledge Hockey and there is now a national league with two divisions as well as several development programmes throughout the United Kingdom
Sledge hockey is the Paralympic equivalent of ice hockey
Britain started playing Sledge Hockey in 1981 (before Canada or USA) and first fielded a GB Team at a demonstration event in 1982
At the 1994 Paralympic Games GB lost narrowly to Canada in the Bronze medal game
Great Britain competed at both the 1998 and 2006 Paralympic Games
Sledge Hockey is probably the only fully inclusive contact sport in the world. Although at Paralympic level players need to be classified disabled to participate, at club level anyone can play
Unlike sports such as Wheelchair Basketball, Wheelchair Rugby and Sitting Volleyball there is no classification system dictating who can participate in play at any point. All players are equal once strapped to a sledge and there are no rules governing who can be involved in play and all non-IPC competitions are open to both disabled and able-bodied participants
Since 2009 Sledge Hockey teams are of mixed gender, from club level through to Paralympic level. This differs from virtually every other sport which segregates teams based on gender.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
DC13-353 October 10, 2013 
