Why diminish feats of Paralympians?

Apparently, he missed the headline, “Four Paralympic 1500m runners finish faster than Rio Olympics gold medal winning time”. In other words, those Paralympic runners were not only the best in their respective classes but would have won gold with their running times had they run in the Olympics. They were the best in the world.

Kalicharan then posits that the monetary rewards structure for Paralympians is less than that of Olympians because the rewards reflect the lesser status of the accolades hard-won by these Paralympians.

The Olympics were created for athletes without disabilities. The intent of the Paralympics is to create a space where the best in the world of athletes with disabilities could showcase their athletic prowess.

The obvious reasoning behind the various classes in the Paralympics was to give disabled athletes with similar levels of physical and mental functioning a fair and level playing field to compete.

If Kalicharan’s reasoning stands, then Simone Biles, who is a gymnast with an intellectual disability (who competed in the Olympics and won multiple gold medals by the way) would not be best in the world. A member of the successful Fiji Olympic rugby team had one eye, yet he was influential in his team’s gold medal-winning performance.

Those four Paralympian 1500 m runners who clocked better times than Olympians would be considered “less than” because of the games they “qualified for”, yet the clock says that those four runners objectively are the best in the world in their event. Are we saying that their clock is of a lesser value as well? The mere presence of athletes with disabilities who compete and win in both the Paralympics and the Olympics should give you profound insights about athletes with disabilities.

Whether Paralympian or Olympian, all of these athletes are the top of their game in their respective sporting disciplines and classes in the world. The fact that there is a difference between the Paralympics and the Olympics in terms of not only monetary rewards but television coverage and prestige within the sporting community has nothing to do with difference in classes or abilities of athletes.

It has everything to do with people without disabilities not accepting that disability is a part of human physical and mental diversity.

It has to do with the ableist attitude that if an athlete has some permanent physical or mental difference, then the achievement of the sporting feat is of lesser rank. However, we hail temporarily injured Olympians as heroes when they compete and win. Kalicharan’s letter simply speaks to his inability to believe that Paralympians are just as good or at times even better athletes than Olympians.

Paralympians train and compete just as hard as the Olympians.

Therefore, Paralympians deserve the same accolades and rewards as Olympians after they have competed and medalled on the world stage. Why try to diminish the achievement of a Paralympic athlete?

NICOLE G COWIE mental health/disability activist