Sir Philip Lee Craven (born 4 July 1950) is an English sports administrator, former

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

wheelchair basketball player,

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

and track and field athlete. Between 2001 and 2017 he was the second president of the

International Paralympic Committee The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; german: Internationales Paralympisches Komitee) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and func ...

(IPC).

Early life and education

Craven was born on 4 July 1951 in Bolton,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. He was educated at Bolton School Boys' Division, where he was a keen swimmer, cricketer and tennis player. In 1966, at the age of 16, he fell during a

rock-climbing Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically an ...

expedition at Wilton Quarries, Bolton. The accident left him without the use of his legs. He studied

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

, and graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

(BA) degree in 1972.

Athlete

Craven represented Great Britain in wheelchair basketball at five editions of the

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...

, from 1972 to 1988. He also competed in track and field athletics and swimming at the 1972 Games. He won gold at the Wheelchair Basketball World Championships in 1973, and bronze in 1975, as well as two gold medals (1971, 1974) and a silver (1993) at the European Championships. He also won gold at the European Champions Cup in 1994, and gold at the 1970 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games.Biography

Results at the Paralympic Games

Sports administrator

In 1980, alongside Horst Strohkendl and Stan Labanowich, Craven played a vital role in the development of a new classification system for wheelchair basketball athletes. Wheelchair basketball rejected its medically based classification system consisting of 3 classes, a system that was founded upon principles that forced athletes to depend on medical examinations. This progress led to a new 4-class functional system, which was democratically voted in 1982. Due to this, wheelchair basketball was increasingly associated with sport as opposed to medicine and rehabilitation, although both still play an important secondary role. In 1988, Craven was elected Chairman of the Wheelchair Basketball Section of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF), the first athlete to lead the sport worldwide. Craven's striving for self-determination and self-government pave the way for the establishment of wheelchair basketball as an independent federation, when it gave up its previous identification as a basketball section of the ISMGF to become the independent, self-governing International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) in 1993. At the First IWBF Official World Congress 1994 in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city an ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

, Philip Craven was elected the first President of IWBF, holding the office until 1998. A productive and more formalised working relationship with

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...

, the worldwide governing body for the sport of basketball, was arranged under Craven's administration, to further legitimise wheelchair basketball itself.

Notable achievements as sports administrator

* Chairman, Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Association (GBWBA) (1977–1980, 1984–1987, 1989–1994) * Chairman, Classification Committee, ISMWSF Basketball Section (1984–1988) * Chief Executive Officer, International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) (1994–1998) * Performance Director, GBWBA Men's Wheelchair Basketball Team (1998–2002) * President, International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) (1998–2002) * President,

(IPC) (2001-2017) * Foundation board member, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) (since 2002) * Board member, Olympic Truce Foundation (since 2002) * Member, IOC Commission for Culture and Olympic Education (since 2005) * Member, IOC

2008 Beijing The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

Co-ordination Commission (since 2002) * Member, IOC Sport & Environment Commission (2002–2005) * Member,

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

(IOC) (since 2003) * Member, Executive Board, British Olympic Association (since 2003) * Administration Council Member, International Committee for Fair Play (since 2003) * Board member,

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, th ...

Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (2005–12) * Member, IOC Congress 2009 Commission (2006–09)

President of the International Paralympic Committee

Craven was elected as the second President of the International Paralympic Committee in 2001. He oversaw 8 Paralympic games with his first being Salt Lake City in 2002 and his last being in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Sir Philip became the first President to have the Paralympics games hosted in his home country, with the UK in 2012. On 7 August 2016, Sir Philip announced that the International Paralympic Committee would ban Russia from participating in the 2016 Paralympic Games for allegedly violating international doping rules. This followed WADA's June 2016 report with accusations of state-sponsored

doping in Russia Systematic doping of Russian athletes has resulted in 48 Olympic medals stripped from Russia (and Russian associated teams), four times the number of the next highest, and more than 30% of the global total. Russia has the most competitors who ...

. Sir Philip put the blame for the ban on Russia's government, stating that Russia has "catastrophically failed its para athletes," adding, "their medals-over-morals mentality disgusts me." Russia's appeal to the

CAS Cas may refer to: * Caș, a type of cheese made in Romania * ' (1886–) Czech magazine associated with Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk * '' Čas'' (19 April 1945–February 1948), the official, daily newspaper of the Democratic Party of Slovakia * ''CA ...

against the ban was rejected, a decision that prompted

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

's public accusations against the international bodies responsible for imposing the ban.

Other activities

Craven served as Company Secretary at the

British Coal Corporation British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

from 1986 up to 1991. He is an Ambassador for Peace and Sport, a

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

-based international organisation, committed to serving peace in the world through sport. In the 1991 New Years Honours List he was made a Member of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(MBE) by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

for services to wheelchair basketball. And then in June 2005 in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List Craven was Knighted by the Queen this time for services to Paralympic Sport. In 2017, Sir Philip was awarded the Paralympic Order. In June 2018, Sir Philip was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Toyota Motor Corporation.

References

External links

IPC President`s Blog

Sir Philip CRAVEN, MBE
official website of the Olympic Movement
International Paralympic Committee official website

IWBF official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craven, Philip 1950 births Living people International Paralympic Committee members British men's basketball players English male swimmers Paralympic wheelchair basketball players of Great Britain Paralympic swimmers of Great Britain Paralympic athletes of Great Britain Sportspeople from Bolton People educated at Bolton School Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 1972 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 1972 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 1976 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 1980 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 1984 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 1988 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair category Paralympic competitors Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University International Olympic Committee members Knights Bachelor Members of the Order of the British Empire Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany People in sports awarded knighthoods Recipients of the Paralympic Order Presidents of the International Paralympic Committee People with paraplegia British male breaststroke swimmers British men's wheelchair basketball players