For it is he who is in charge of the organisation that is primarily responsible for the successful delivery of the biggest disability sporting event on the planet in the English Capital in just under 1,000 days time.

No small task then you might say.

Surprisingly, the biggest challenge facing Lane and co is not the enormous scale of the project – which ParalympicsGB will not be overly daunted by – but actually the complex concept of marketing disability sport in the correct way so that is well received by the general public.

While there will be some viewers who tune into the London 2012 Paralympic Games with a full and complete knowledge of disability sport; other viewers - who are perhaps in the majority – will have a limited knowledge of disability sport while their viewing consumption of disability sport may be restricted to one session every four years when the Summer Paralympics take to our screens for an action packed couple of weeks.

This is not to suggest that the majority of the general public do not enjoy watching disability sport as there is little doubt that the Paralympic Games make extremely popular television. Just check the ratings for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games which showed that the BBC recorded an average of 2.2 million viewers for the opening ceremony.

However, it would be simply foolish to suggest that disability sport is nearly as popular or watched as its able-bodied counterpart. While able-bodied sporting competition is watched day in and day out by people across Britain, disability sport does not get nearly the same exposure.

Therefore, ParalympicsGB’s job of marketing the disability sport brand in the correct way is a crucial task and one that Lane is only too aware of.

“It is fair to say that we have moved a long way since 2000,” Lane recently told the BBC, "but I would contend that we still have a long, long way to go and therefore, the marketing of the Games - for us - is paramount. Getting that right and involving more people, more of the public, more of the time is absolutely crucial to the success of 2012."

Astute words from an astute man but Lane knows that it is not all that simple. The disability sport brand must be handled with extreme care ensuring that appeals to both hardcore, knowledgeable fans as well as the general public.

Lane continued: "Defining the brand has been one of the challenges we’ve had and I think we've very assiduously tried to align our brand to elite sport - hence our relationship with the Olympics - that gives a line of definition which I think the public will understand.

"But we also want to portray the uniqueness of Paralympic sport – which we do believe is there – to engage people."

Fine words again but in aligning the disability sport brand "to elite sport", another major problem emerges in that disability sport becomes too elite.

This makes things difficult and complicated for the general public who have a set image of disability sport so that when they see Paralympians producing standards that are almost equal to the top athletes; it makes it difficult for them to believe in disability sport as being exactly that: sport for those with a disability.

Lane agrees with the point claiming: "There is a duality in what we are doing in the Paralympics.

"There is this celebration of absolute elite performance and some of those standards are very close now to Olympic performance as we’ve seen with Oscar Pistorius (pictured). So there is a blurring in that sense. But it is this triumph of human spirit that defines what we do within the Paralympics."



Yet another problem emerges for the marketing of disability sport (and you almost want to shed a tear for Lane due to his never-ending workload at this point) with the recent re-inclusion of intellectual disability (ID) athletes into the Paralympic Games at London 2012.

ID athletes were banned from Paralympic competition after a cheating scandal at the Sydney 2000 Summer Paralympics when a number of the members of Spain’s ID basketball team were found not to be suffering from an intellectual disability.

But after nine years of campaigning from various groups involved in the Paralympics – particular ParalympicsGB under Lane - the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) last month voted to reinstate ID athletes into the Paralympic Games in London.

The problem for Lane is not the re-inclusion itself which he obviously lobbied tirelessly for, but the actual perception of ID athletes that the general public will have. ID athletes often have no obvious visible disability meaning that the general public will perhaps not even understand why they are competing at the Paralympics.

"[The fact that ID athletes don’t look disabled] has been a challenge in the re-inclusion of them back into the movement," Lane said. "But ParalympicsGB has always believed very strongly in the power of sport to positively impact upon people’s lives and intellectual disability is a well-defined disability grouping so whilst it may not be overtly visible to the person watching the sport, there is in fact, a genuine disability that does impact on their ability to do sport.

"I think with intellectual disabilities, there is again this notion that they are challenging their disability to be able to perform at the levels we would expect."

There is then, a lot to think about and a lot to be confused about concerning disability sport and the Paralympic Games.

However; it doesn’t have to be so.

At the end of the day, sport is just sport.

There may be different classifications, there may be different disability groups and there may be some athletes at the Paralympic Games that are as good as able-bodied competitors at the Olympic Games.

So what?

The London 2012 Paralympics will be a fantastic spectacle so my advice is that when we get to the Games on August 29, 2012; just get yourself completely caught up and blown away by them.

Don’t worry about the technicalities!

Incidentally, that is the view expressed by Phil lane.

Lane said: "It is a complex area but who can tell the difference between LC2 and LC4 classification zones? That's a challenge in itself so the whole piece is very challenging.

"But what I often say to people is that if you’re interested in sport and enjoy a sporting spectacle, you don't have to get yourself tied up in the whole classification issue.

"Just know that there are six guys or girls on the line in the final who are the six very best in that event and just enjoy the competition for what it is."

Amen Mr Lane.

Tom Degun is the chief reporter for insideworldparasport