Celebrating disabilities beyond the paralympics
Paralympian Hannah Cockcroft competing at Paris 2024.
The Paralympics are a great British tradition. In 1948 the Stoke Mandeville Games were held for war veterans in rehabilitation, over the years this grew and the first Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960. Since then, the Paralympics are held every 4 years, and this led to the formation of the International Paralympic Committee in 1989.
We celebrate disabled people during the Paralympics, but often the enthusiasm surrounding para-sport fades after they end. Channel 4 set out to tackle language biases in their advertising campaign for the Paralympics: The idea was to discourage the patronising of para-athletes such as by labelling them as ‘superheroes’. The use of crossed out phrases such as ‘for someone so small’ or ‘for someone in a wheelchair’ showcases how we tend to patronise para-athletes and focus on their disability over their sporting achievements. Just like any other athlete, para-athletes have trained their entire lives to compete on the global stage and this means they should be treated with just as much respect as Olympians.
Images from Channel 4's Paralympics campaign.
A common question is why there is a gap between the Olympics and Paralympics. For an able-bodied person like myself, accessibility features are a novelty. The village has to undergo significant changes including the moving of plug sockets so all heights can reach them and the adjusting of counter heights to shops such as the mini-market. Ultimately, this is the home of world-class athletes for 12 days and they need to be comfortable, no matter what their requirements are. Some of these changes may seem small and simple, but when you are changing an entire athlete's village this can take time.
There is a way to get rid of the delay though. Would able-bodied athletes be inconvenienced by lower counter heights and plug sockets at 45cm? And even if they are, why should para-athletes have to wait 17 days until their events can start? Ultimately, if the Olympic Village and wider facilities were built with accessibility in mind in the first place, both able-bodied and disabled athletes would be included.
Classifications
One of the key differences between the Paralympics and the Olympics is the classification system. There is a long history to the classification system and it has changed as the games moved from revolving around rehabilitation to focusing on performance (read more here). This system creates categories based on the disabilities athletes have, whether it be limb loss, Cerebral Palsy, or blindness, and how that disability impacts participation in that sport. Classifications are complex and can be changed every few years. They are based on functionality instead of performance, which would mean high-performing athletes such as Ellie Simmonds wouldn’t lose their classification because of their dominance.
A category that caught my eye was the S6 category in swimming. The reason it interests me is you have short-stature athletes competing alongside athletes who are significantly taller, as this category allows athletes with conditions including short stature, major limb impairment, and loss of two limbs to compete against each other. Classifications such as this one are based on functionality. An assessment is made by swimming experts who watch these athletes train and undergo other tests, leading to them be classified as an S6.
GB Medallists
Team GB finished second in the medal table, with swimming doing much of the heavy lifting. Poppy Maskill is our most successful Paralympian in Paris having won 2 golds and 2 silvers. Meanwhile, Sarah Storey is our most successful para-athlete ever and she won her 29th medal this year in the women's C5 time trial (compared with our most successful Olympic athlete Jason Kenny who has 9 medals). We've also seen Sammi Kinghorn beat her rival Catherine Debrunner to get gold in the T53 100m final. This is something she has been trying to do since Tokyo 2020, therefore this win was particularly emotional.
Whilst we have had wild success in the Paralympics, this unfortunately doesn't translate to the global stage, at least not in a way that is visible to the mainstream. Jonny Peacock recently spoke up about the fact that the Diamond League does not televise para-athletics and only allows them to compete before the cameras come on. Sadly this shows that our celebration of para-athletes stops when the Paralympics ends, and then they are confined to obscurity whilst their able-bodied counterparts enjoy the spotlight. Sports organisations and media outlets need to do more to address the current imbalance for para-sports and advocate to celebrate these athletes.
“Seb Coe, I need you, we need you, and we need you to put us in the actual Diamond League, not a cheerleader event, not five minutes before the cameras turn on, but when the cameras are on. We need to be visible.”
What can your organisation do?
As a society we tend to only celebrate disabled people during times like the Paralympics, but we need to make this more permanent. As someone who owns a fitness or wellness space you can take small steps to help move society’s inclusion of disabled people, and therefore the celebration of para-athletes, forward. It can be tough to know where to start in making your fitness space more inclusive of disabled people. At werk., we provide solutions so everyone can enjoy the many mental and physical health benefits of sport and find their community.
Below are some action points to make your fitness space more inclusive of disabled people:
Have an accessible entrance to your space - This can be anything from a lift that can fit a wheelchair (which is ideal), to a ramp. Be sure to check that the entrance is practical, for example, often wheelchair ramps are rather steep which makes them difficult to use.
Train your instructors to include adaptations to exercises - This will make wheelchair users, those with prosthetic limbs etc. feel more comfortable as their needs are being considered. Additionally, this will make elderly people and those who have reduced mobility more able to participate in classes.
Have equipment that can be adapted for wheelchair use - This will allow wheelchair users to make the most of your gym.
Employ disabled personal trainers and improve training for able-bodied trainers to understand different needs of disabled people - Having grown up working at a specialist spinal cord rehabilitation centre, I was very used to seeing Personal Trainers (‘PTs’) with disabilities. However, since then I’ve been around a huge amount of leisure centres in London and not seen any disabled PTs. There are plenty of disabled PTs and by employing them you will make your classes more inclusive. Alongside this, you can teach your able-bodied PTs to understand the needs of disabled people so all your classes can be inclusive.
Show para-sport at your facility - Many gyms have TVs showing sport and other shows, a good way to include disabled people is to show para-sport to your customers. They will see how incredible things like wheelchair rugby are, additionally, when disabled people enter your space they will feel more considered and included.
