host, organize and manage the Paralympic Games after the Olympics (hosted at a level of excellence never before seen), and show that a potential Paralympic edition on Australian soil could be a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that parathletes are part of Australian society, and that they have enormous potential to demonstrate their inclusion and diversity. The APC's arguments had previously been used successfully when they convinced former Prime Minister Bob Hawke to sponsor the foundation of the APF: nobody imagined that Australia would consolidate itself in the Paralympic movement in the same way as in the Olympic movement, or even that this would be done in just sx years. As a courtesy from the NSW Government, APC would gain an office at the New South Wales Sport House. Third Phase: "We are on this" The activities and the work of the Bid Committee gained greater intensity as 1992 drew to a close: the APC would have to present its project to external and interested parties. At the same time that the engagement and involvement of the population in the Olympic bid increased, the rejection of the Paralympics grew in the same way. For many, the work of the APF was considered "opportunistic" and "rude", while others understood that there was an "obligation for pity". With this negativity growing, the APF continued to do its job, while the difficulties continued to increase everyday. Taking advantage of this and the increasingly shorter deadline for sending the necessary documentation - this was to be delivered to the IPC by March 21, 1993. The late Adrienne Smith, who was then working as the executive secretary of the APC, sat down in a table with several consultants of the SOBC: in just eight weeks, Smith and the SOBC drew up the bid project that would be handed over to the IPC Executive Board in a meeting scheduled for Lillehammer, Norway. In a surprise action, the APF managed to add the letters of intent signed by the Prime Minister, the Governor of NSW, and the Mayor of Sydney. At this meeting, the four candidate cities were aware of what their competitors were proposing to the IPC and, for the first time, face-to-face meetings between the members of these Candidacy Committees took place. Some of the Australian journalists who were accompanying the Sydney delegation reported that "the APF Committee made a functional and realistic presentation, but which