Do the Paralympics give a true representation of disabled people?

[mids2019]

I am watching the Paralympics in the Commonwealth Games and I am struck by the resilience, tenacity and strength of character of the para athletes. They truly are positive role models.

However is there danger of the Paralympics giving a false impression to the able bodied public that disability is 'not that bad' as superficially it looks like disabled people can train to become athletes and be fêted on the world stage?

Disability in this country can be categorised by minimal state benefit, poor state support and real chance of poverty . Of course you have the ongoing stigma of disabilities in general within society.

The Paralympians I have seen interviewed are very eloquent but there seem to be few working class athletes. Are we hiding the fact that having a severe disability from a poor family with multiple social needs may be as grim experience and Paralympians as a group could aid in hi ighlighting this.

Not really.
The Paralympics give me the same impression of disabled people as the olympics give me an impression of able bodied people. Some people are sporty and competitive, some not so much.

The question is should Paralympics be therefore more inclusive and representative?

In what way? And how? It’s still a sports competition - the people who take part are the best in their chosen sport. That’s all there can be to it surely?

There is an argument Paralympics should be more representative as the whole point if the Paralympics is to make athletics more representative of society i.e. improve the visibility of disabled athletes

But the whole point of the Paralympics isn’t to make athletes more representative of society. The Paralympics began for the benefit of the people that wanted to compete in them, not so that they could do society a favour.

If we take this premise do we need to ensure that Paralympians come from range of social backgrounds with an increased range of disability?

No, we don’t need to ensure that we use positive discrimination against people who are already subject to negative discrimination.

We could look at how the Paralympic could be opened up to include people with more disabilities and we could do more to ensure that adapted sports are available to all the people that might want to participate in them. Ultimately the whole point of the Olympics and Paralympics is that they are the elite. It’s not supposed to represent the every day Joe Bloggs.

This.

That's the point of para-sports, not to be representative or provide a showcase. It's for the athletes, not the rest of us.

As a wheelchair user with CP I enjoy watching parasport and seeing people who experience things similar to me.

But it’s not representative. I’ve done adaptive sports. They’ve generally relied on family being available to take me as a nondriver, often long distances. And they rely on volunteers which means sometimes you get there and you only get to participate for 20 mins or can’t take part at all because getting reliable volunteers with the right skills is hard. And even adaptive sports are only inclusive if you are the right sort of disabled.

Around 2012 I was involved in disability sailing I was asked a lot by well meaning nondisabled people “why don’t you try for the paralympics?” The type of boat I could sail wasn’t used in the paralympics. And I couldn’t tolerate the boat for the length of the competitive sessions due to pain - I tried on many occasions . within the sailing community there was definitely a view that I wasn’t trying hard enough. I had comments about “chickening out” made to me when I had to withdraw partway through a session.

Unless you plan on the olympics being run in the same way then no the paralympics should not be held to a higher standard.

Its too easy to hold certain people up as 'examples' and hold them to a higher standard whilst other people just get to be (not well worded)

For example Boris Johnson could be considered a bad prime minister (not wanting to get into a political debate) but Theresa May and Maggie Thatcher are held up as examples of 'female prime ministers'. So Boris gets to be rubbish with no reference to his sex.

Or black women are expected to speak for all black women etc etc.

Paralympians do not compete, or speak for, or showcase for all disabled people. They are there to compete for themselves and their country in their sport and deserve to be held to no higher or lower standards than able bodied people.

Not really they are elite athletes, as are all Olympians.

There is an argument Paralympics should be more representative as the whole point if the Paralympics is to make athletics more representative of society i.e. improve the visibility of disabled athletes I don't understand what it is you are arguing to have changed. If its more funding so those without a load of financial backing can compete if they are good enough then fair enough.

I think people have largely forgotten that athletes with a learning disability were banned from competing in the Paralympics after the Spanish basketball scandal in Sydney 2000. The team won gold but most of them faked a disability to compete, leading to a complete ban on learning disabled athletes for the next two games, and only being able to compete in 3(?) sports in London. Absolutely disgraceful.

Do Olympians represent every day able bodied people???

@CMOTDibbler

Thank you for the informative post. Do you think the high cost of specialist equipment (and training) is a barrier towards poorer disabled competitors entering elite sport and how can the government act to ensure equality (more funding for sports bodies)?

It was interesting to see you mentioned someone with muscular dystrophy. I think it is positive as it shows the organising bodies are carefully choosing categories to represent a wide range of limiting conditions (dare I use the word representative).

So are you also running a campaign to make able-bodied elite athletes more representative of society as a whole? Because apart from you here, I have never heard anyone make the argument that Paralympics should be more representative. Do we ensure that "olympians come from a range of social backgrounds"? And perhaps we should pay more attention to body type and ensure that there is a more diverse range of body types represented.

I don't know whether you have a disability or not, but I do - and I find your attitude offensive and discriminatory. You think that you are helping people with disabilities, but actually you are making the Paralympics about our disability instead of about our ability.

For starters there aren’t paralympic categories for all disabilities. So no.

I used to compete in a sport (not at that level!) until I got a disability that meant I couldn’t do it in the same way any more. I had to quit entirely because the para version of the sport is aimed at a different type of disability.

The Elite in any field implicitly have had a load of advantages in life. I don't know how you 'level' that up without taking away advantages from a lot of people.

You sure can't do a lot else to ensure that everyone has equal access to while growing up:
encouraging supportive adults
stable home life
physical gifts
character gifts
material resources
good physical health
good mental health
low injury risk
peaceful safe environment
quality training
someone who spots their talent(s)

Do you think the high cost of specialist equipment (and training) is a barrier towards poorer disabled competitors entering elite sport

I know this wasn't aimed at me but I couldn't help but answer. And my answer is "well yes obviously" did you honestly not realise this? The high cost of equipment and training is a barrier to all competitors trying to access elite sport wether disabled or not but more so disabled competitors as the equipment costs may well be higher.

My DS is a swimmer and there is a reason why the medal table at the latest British Champs was topped by a private school. Money and the opportunities it brings is one of the main factors in achieving in any form of elite sport.

No sporting competition will be a true representation of the country or area. I'd still rather have the competition and work towards reducing the barriers that many face, than not have the competition at all.

Premiership footballers started taking the knee to highlight problems about racism in sport and society so I think there is a precedent for elite athletes using their positions to highlight problems afflicting marginilsed groups. I was not arguing disabled athletes have a duty to do this but an opportunity if they do which ( it may be that they do not have strong views on the subject of disability support and that is fair)

Obviously able bodied sport is elitist and you are looking at the most gifted at their sport in society i.e. it is non representative.

If you look at the Paralympics decisions need to be made about how to categorise athletes depending on disability (difficult job) and surely "representation' has to be a factor in that decision making.

Para spirt is usually broken up into sections of abilities which sport wernt you able to take part in ?

I know two Team GB para equestrians, they both have MS. They both have families that have funded their training. Pretty much all sports require the athlete to have had some level of privilege to afford the training, equipment, travel etc… Of course it excludes people from low income families but that isn’t for elite athletes to change, it’s for the sporting bodies to make their sports more accessible to all. It should still be about elite sport.

If you look at the Paralympics decisions need to be made about how to categorise athletes depending on disability (difficult job) and surely "representation' has to be a factor in that decision making.

I love the Paralympics but I think the danger is when people think all disabled people should be elite athletes because they are disabled, when they don't expect all able bodied people to pursue the Olympics

I don't think sports people should be 'role models' if they don't want to. I think it's perfectly legitimate to be totally selfish and be an elite athlete.

For clarity OP, once athletes have been classified to determine their category, the ONLY decision that needs to be made is how fucking good they are, representation should never be a factor.

It sounds like you don't consider para-sports to be sports at all.

However is there danger of the Paralympics giving a false impression to the able bodied public that disability is 'not that bad' as superficially it looks like disabled people can train to become athletes and be fêted on the world stage?

No. This is an idiotic suggestion.

@Jalisco

If you were in charge of categorising disabled sport how would you do it? What would you include and what would you exclude? A couple of posters have hinted that their athletic prowess may have been highlighted if there was a category for a certain kind of disability hence my points about representation (which seem to be unwelcome). I am actually very much in favour of highlighting ability rather than disability so I agree with that philosophy but all the ability of a wide a range of disabilities as possible should be profiled? How is that offensive or discriminatory?

Please do not describe ASD as a mental health disorder, it isn’t.