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.

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.

This is the part of your argument I dont understand. Para Sport is also elitist and they are also the most gifted at their sport within their classification.

Yes para sports stars could do something to highlight problems faced by disabled people but why should they. They are not there as a poster child for whatever their disability is they are there as an elite sports person excelling in their sport.

It's a ridiculous assumption that the average disabled person has anything more in common with a Paralympian than the average able bodied person has with the average Olympian. It diminishes the accomplishments of Paralympic athletes, for starters.

The categories are set in such a way to ensure a level playing field for the competitors in that event. It’s a complex grading system but it’s nothing to do with representation.

Some para athletes may decide to use their platform to highlight issues close to their heart but that is no different from anyone else in the spotlight doing the same.

Disabled Athletes have their own medical issues going on being good at basketball doesn't mean they don't have other things to deal with,but imo that information is private and they shouldn't have to share that,

@titchy

I agree.

The point stands how do you determine the CV ombination of events and disability type on display.

I do have disabled members of my family that h as be done sport in to he past. The subject of how disability should be factored into sport does come up

What do you agree with? You said para athletes should be chosen to be representative rather than for their ability and I called you on it. Do you now disagree with what you said?

Absolutely elite athletes can use their platform to highlight problems affecting marginalised groups.

The issue here is that you are only expecting the marginalised groups to highlight problems affecting marginalised groups.

That would be the same as only expecting black football players to take the knee, or gay rugby players to support gay people etc etc.

Why can't all Olympic athletes use their platform if they want to and not if they don't. Why does an already marginalised group have a greater expectation, or greater burden than the non marginalised group.

Everyone can speak up for disabled people. Maybe everyone should, instead of expecting disabled people to do a greater amount of work on top of their jobs as athletes whilst letting able bodied athletes not.

And being disabled does not automatically make you an advocate or a spokes person for anything. Yes there are many elite athletes of all kinds who chose to use their platform to benefit groups they feel affiliated with. But a black athlete does not have to be a race spokesperson or advocate. A female athlete does not have to be a feminist spokesperson or advocate. A trans athletes does not have to be a trans activist or advocate. A gay athlete does not have to be a gay rights activist or advocate. And yet there is always an assumption on disabled people with any kind of platform that they should be advocating and speaking for their disability. Actually there seems to be an assumption that disabled people in general, even those who aren't famous in any way, should be educating and advocating and explaining their condition. Nobody owes you that. Just like women don't owe anyone pretty or polite disabled people don't owe anyone any kind of explanation, education, example setting or advocacy. So yeah, it's great when Paralympian's use their platform for advocacy etc. But they don't owe it. Their role is to perform their sport, that's it.

Mo Farah's story was inspiring and shocking. It highlights the horrors of trafficking. He hasn't told the story till now possibly because he wanted the focus to be on his running.

Your point about the range of classifications is a separate one to representation.

Classification is largely a result of the number of athletes in a particular sport that have a particular disability. Sports where lots of people participate (running, football etc) can accommodate a much larger range of disabilities than niche sports. Yes it would be fantastic to have a broader range of opportunities, but being the only person in your sport with your classification doesn't make a competition. And athletes are all about the competition. There's also the time factor - there's one men's 50m free final in able-bodied, there are a dozen in para.

@mids2019 could you clarify what you are actually trying to say because your posts seem to be a bit of a mish mash of ideas and sometimes a bit contradictory and I've got lost as to what your point is.

I agree with the last two posts. Good points well made.

I agree considering the above that the disabled shouldn't necessarily be advocated for the disabled.

However if a disabled athlete were to make a more political point maybe that shouldn't be necessarily be discouraged.

What political point do you want a person to make ?

However if a disabled athlete were to make a more political point maybe that shouldn't be necessarily be discouraged

Is it being discouraged? Do you have evidence of this?

I notice that you didn't mention whether you have a disability or not - are you just an able-bodied person deciding what we should want? You clearly didn't read what I said - I am not going to be categorising "disabled sport" at all - there is no such thing as a disabled sport, there are sports, and some people with disabilities compete in those sports. And whilst I do not have to account further for why I find your approach offensive, I will reiterate that you are only attempting to make sports where people with disabilities more "representative" (whatever that means). Focussing on why "we" as people with disabilities should be more representative is offensive because it is singling out people with disabilities. I ask again - where is your thread on the same lines about the Olympics? Do you question the social backgrounds and representativeness of premiere league footballers or cricketing nationals?

In the dim and distant past, I actually did represent GB internationally. I couldn't compete in the Olympics - although I would have been good enough - because my sport wasn't represented in the Olympics at that time. It's that simple. There were other competitions, but no Olympics. No elite competition can represent everyone, or every sport, or every variation. That is just what it is. The Paralympics are no different than any other.

"Opportunity" is an entirely different issue, as is "representation". It is possible to improve the opportunity for people to engage in sports and to excel if they can. If that opportunity is available to all then anyone can be an elite sportsperson if they have the ability. But that doesn't mean that elite sports become representative of anything other than people who are very good at a sport.

I support the Paralympics but they do present a misleading image of disability. The most common is that prosthetic legs are pain-free. The reality is they hurt like hell because legs are constantly swelling up and shrinking.
The worst person for misrepresenting disability on TV is Matt Baker. Those countryfile episodes where he takes people mountain climbing make me want to kill my television.

@titchy

Fairness and representation are important in disabled sport. I agree once categories have been defined then the best athlete wins. The point I was making was that when initially choosing categories the choice should be as fair and representative as possible. I was watching visually impaired athletes compete (exclusively visually impaired with guides) and obviously someone has made a decision that visually impaired athletes should have their own category for this event i.e. visually impaired athletes were 'represented'. Obviously the fittest athlete won on the day.

The point if representation is not to remove competition but to ensure as diverse a range of physical and neurological disabilities can be accomdated as possible.

@Jalisco

I am disabled in the fact I can only see out of one eye.

I concentrate on what I can do not what I can't ( ball games will never be my thing)

I do not believe my disability is sufficient to warrant inclusion in any category of disabled sport but I would completely advocate the representing of athletes that had more severe impairment.

I don't think in that context representation is wrong

Can you clarify what you mean by representation? I'm finding your points really confusing, contradictory and sometimes offensive. You seem really unclear.

You've talked about representation meaning ethnic and social diversity - that's offensive to want athletes selected taking that into account. Then you talk about having enough categories - is that what you mean by representation?

@mids2019 can you explain who you think isn't being represented? If there is a gap somewhere then maybe contact that sports governing body and explain your concerns.

Your comparison between visual impaired runners and other sports doesn't make sense to me.

@tichy

By categorisation Ithink the choice of categories refers to representation in that differing disability types are represented in differing events.

I wouldn't advocate positive discrimination in any form to increase social and ethnic diversity in sport.

A side point is do you support increasing social and ethnic diversity and how can it be done?

They're about as representative of ordinary disabled people as much as Usain Bolt is representative of any random bloke born in 1986 whose idea of exercise is walking to the chip shop and Arnold Schwarzenegger is representative of everybody's 75 year old father.

Which is why so much of the 'oh, well, if they can do it, why are you complaining about needing a reasonable adaptation?' or 'What you are complaining about? You've still got legs' or, my particular most hated 'THEY have a Growth Mindset so your fears, barriers and experience of prejudice are imaginary.' is so deeply offensive.

No, random patronising twat on the internet, the fact that some people are superb athletes in their classification does not mean that every disabled person would be able to do the same if they only wanted it enough - you were never, ever capable of holding multiple world records for sports; do not insult the people who do by implying that you would be faster than Bolt if you had really wanted to be.

And most of all, disabled people including disabled athletes do not exist for the purposes of giving able bodied people warm feels and a means of putting others down.

Fencing. There’s no category for upper limb impairments.