Sunday, September 09, 2012 9:43:27 PM
Alas, but .. There's more to Paralympic injustice than just blade length
The spotlight on the Paralympics must also shine on its continuing sporting
injustices, from unfair classifications to the influence of global wealth disparity
Anne Wafula Strike - Anne Wafula Strike -
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 September 2012 17.38 BST
Dedeline Mibamba Kimbata (left), a Congolese Paralympic athlete, had never raced in a
race chair before she arrived at the London 2012 Games. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA
While all eyes have been on Oscar Pistorius and the "battle of the blades" .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/sep/05/paralympics-running-blades-pistorius, many other anomalies, inequalities and injustices in Paralympic sport have been overlooked. As a wheelchair racer, I am passionate about the sport: the adrenaline rush on the track, the medals, even the long hours of training. However, I have encountered many disturbing things during my career: in particular, a lack of clarity surrounding both classification of disability and selection, and the absence of a level playing field for those competing.
Classification continues to be a controversial issue. In 2008 at the Beijing Games, Rebecca Chin was disqualified for not being disabled enough. I was left paralysed from the chest down after suffering from polio when I was two. When I began racing competitively, I was given a permanent classification of T53 – this is for athletes with no trunk function, and the correct category for my disability. Yet I was pulled out of a major competition in 2006 and reclassified into a more able-bodied category (T54) after a cursory medical and fitness test.
A subsequent expert medical report confirmed that I was paralysed from the chest down: the prerequisite for T53. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence, I lost the six-year battle to be returned to my rightful category – a category in which, based on the racing times I've achieved in recent years, I would win medals for Great Britain. Unlike in the Olympic Games, the criteria for Paralympic selection are not transparent. Despite being ranked number one in the UK in the 100m sprint, and number seven in the world, I was not selected for the 2012 Games.
And then there is the issue of equipment – illustrated by the Pistorius row over blade length, but not confined to it. Many disabled athletes rely on equipment, and this varies in quality. Superior wheelchairs and state-of-the-art prostheses can give athletes an unfair advantage over less well-equipped rivals. How can athletes from less well-off countries possibly compete as equals when they have no access to any sort of equipment, let alone the latest Paralympic mod cons? Haitian athletes Nephtalie Jean Lois and Josue Cajuste had to borrow equipment when they arrived in the UK. In addition, I am the UK's only black female Paralympian, and more could be done by UK Athletics and others to encourage more black athletes to get involved. When it comes to able-bodied sport, of course each body is different. But what they have in common is that all of them are whole and healthy and strong. Whether a runner comes from Rwanda or Rochdale, as long as they have ground under their feet to practise on, all have an equal opportunity to win.
As disabled athletes, our imperfect bodies will always be unequal: the swimmers with short legs competing against those with no legs; those with one leg racing against those with two. Some of these inequalities cannot be ironed out. But others are deliberately manufactured by human beings and must be eliminated. While it is wonderful that so many people want to celebrate the real achievements of disabled athletes, few shine a light into some of the darker corners of this sport. The same rigour that roots out injustice in able-bodied elite sport must be applied to disabled elite sport.
Many Paralympic competitors are inspirational, demonstrating exceptional athleticism and overcoming tremendous adversity. For me there is no bigger thrill than tearing round the track with the wind in my face. But I want to compete with my peers, not with those who are more able-bodied than I am. And I want athletes like the Congolese wheelchair racer, Dedeline Mibamba Kimbata, to have a wheelchair as good as that of her rivals from richer countries, so that she can compete fairly with western racers. The winners and losers of the disabled world's most prestigious sporting event should not be determined by global postcodes and bank balances, nor by arbitrary classification or selection decisions. But sadly they are.
More needs to be done to ensure that all disabled athletes are competing in their rightful class: the selection process must be made accountable. Athletes from poorer countries must get more support so that they can compete as equals. Ensuring justice in Paralympic sport is far more challenging than in the able-bodied equivalent, but in order to preserve the sport's integrity, it must be done.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/06/paralympic-injustice-oscar-pistorius
I'd read one on the wheelchair problem a couple of weeks ago.
Was good to remember to get one on the inequality topic up.
========
'We can't afford to compete with you': France accuses Britain of techno-cheating (... again)
The French Paralympic team deputy boss said Brits investment was turning the event 'into Forumla 1'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2197033/We-afford-compete-France-accuses-Britain-techno-cheating---again.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
========
Two classes at the Paralympics
[ insert image from original link below ]
08-09-2012
Athletes like the amputated runner Thin Seng Hong from Cambodia cannot afford expensive protheses and wheelchairs. More support is needed for disabled athletes, 80 percent of whom live in developing countries.
Her hands folded on her back, standing in stooped posture, and talking in a soft voice, Thin Seng Hong looks a bit like a party guest who's imagined the event a bit differently. "I'm impressed, it's a great experience," the petite woman says quietly. Her smile looks a bit forced, her words don't seem to fit her body language. Thin Seng Hong is standing in the interview zone of the Olympic stadium, buzzing spectators all around her. To her right, a Dutch runner with protheses hugs her coach with a scream of joy, and on her left, a Japanese athlete in a wheelchair is giving an interview to a dozen journalists.
Thin Seng Hong looks lost. She has lost her right lower leg. She comes from Cambodia, where the percentage of amputated people is the highest in the world, due to the many landmines. Although the Cambodian team could be large, Thin Seng Hong is the only Cambodian athlete in London.
The stars of the 14th Summer Paralympics are Oscar Pistorius or Alessandro Zanardi. They are talented and practice hard, and they also have high-tech equipment: The pair of protheses which make South African Pistorius run so fast cost 20,000 euro. The featherlight handbike that helped former formula one racer Alessandro Zanardi win his time trial gold medal sells for 6,000 euros.
Both athletes are the peak of a Paralympic elite: 40 percent of the 4,200 participants are from just nine rich countries. Altogether, 165 nations are represented. The Paralympics don't reflect reality, since according to the World Health Organization, or WHO, out of a billion people with disabilities, 80 percent live in developing countries.
Like runner Thin Seng Hong. In 2005 she started doing competitive sports, but she soon had to stop, since she could not gain any support. People with disabilities suffer exclusion and discrimination in Cambodia and dozens of other countries. Friends of Thin Seng Hong collected donations and bought a prothesis for her for some 2,000 euros. That sum is peanuts for athletes like Oscar Pistorius or Alessandro Zanardi - yet it equals three annual salaries for Thin Seng Hong, who dreams of opening a souvenir stall in Cambodia. "With a better prothesis I would have run faster," the 29-year-old said. She dropped out in the preliminary rounds of the 100 and 200 meter races. Still, she calls her prothesis her lucky leg.
The Paralympics represent a two-class society, though the differences are becoming smaller. In 1988 only 61 countries were present at the games in Seoul, while in London, it's almost three times more. Some 16 nations sent athletes for the first time. And there could have been more: Athletes from Malawi and Botswana had to cancel their trips shortly before the opening ceremony, because according to the British paper The Guardian, they had not been able to find enough sponsors.
"It's one of our most important goals, to widen the paralympic movement," said Philip Craven, president of the International Paralymic Committee (IPC). He added that this would enhance the levels at the competitions, as well as improving the image of people with disabilities in poor countries.
Like the International Olympic Committe (IOC), the IPC also distributes wildcards to athletes from emerging eceonomies and developing countries who were not able to qualify for the Paralympics through contentional qualifications. One of these 61 special permits for 50 countries went to Thin Seng Hong. Her story is supposed to inspire Cambodians who are handicapped because of the civil war. However, Thin Seng Hong's races were not shown on TV, and no Cambodian journalists traveled to London.
The IPC received thousands of requests for wildcards, but it has far less money than to the IOC. In earlier interviews, Thin Seng Hong demanded a stronger focus on developing countries, but she was not prepared to repeat these arguments in London. Did the IPC request athletes to refrain from criticism? Or did the Cambodian government intervene?
The IPC is dependent on partners, for instance the organization "Motivation." This organization has developed materials for cheap wheelchairs used for tennis and basketball, and distributes them at a cost of just 550 euros instead of 5000 euros. At current, some 4,000 of these wheelchairs are being used in 50 countries.
Rüdiger Herzog, who works for the Duderstadt-based Otto Bock company in Northern Germany, elaborated on the problem. "Many teams cannot afford technicians for the Paralympics, their equipment is old and broken," Herzog said. The company is a world leader in prothetics and organizes the technical workshop at the Paralympics. In London, there are 80 technicians providing 14 tons of equipment and some 15,000 spare parts. But these figures don't mean much to most athletes at the Paralympics. Out of the 13 athletes from Kenya, for instance, only one is dependent on his wheelchair.
The IPC has been strenghening education projects: Administrations, teachers and coaches are being made more aware of the value of disabled sports. Now, 15 percent of people in the world have some kind of impediment - given the ongoing wars and conflicts, that figure is likely to increase. Still, only between 2 and 3 percent of disabled children attend school. In Cambodia for instance, there are hardly any disabled-accessible playgrounds or gyms.
Yet Thin Seng Hong hopes that she will not bet he only athlete from her country to travel to the
next Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She would love to run again in the same stadium
with the millionaire posterboy Oscar Pistorius. Even though they are still worlds apart.
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16225400,00.html
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=23277
The spotlight on the Paralympics must also shine on its continuing sporting
injustices, from unfair classifications to the influence of global wealth disparity
Anne Wafula Strike - Anne Wafula Strike -
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 September 2012 17.38 BST
Dedeline Mibamba Kimbata (left), a Congolese Paralympic athlete, had never raced in a
race chair before she arrived at the London 2012 Games. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA
While all eyes have been on Oscar Pistorius and the "battle of the blades" .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/sep/05/paralympics-running-blades-pistorius, many other anomalies, inequalities and injustices in Paralympic sport have been overlooked. As a wheelchair racer, I am passionate about the sport: the adrenaline rush on the track, the medals, even the long hours of training. However, I have encountered many disturbing things during my career: in particular, a lack of clarity surrounding both classification of disability and selection, and the absence of a level playing field for those competing.
Classification continues to be a controversial issue. In 2008 at the Beijing Games, Rebecca Chin was disqualified for not being disabled enough. I was left paralysed from the chest down after suffering from polio when I was two. When I began racing competitively, I was given a permanent classification of T53 – this is for athletes with no trunk function, and the correct category for my disability. Yet I was pulled out of a major competition in 2006 and reclassified into a more able-bodied category (T54) after a cursory medical and fitness test.
A subsequent expert medical report confirmed that I was paralysed from the chest down: the prerequisite for T53. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence, I lost the six-year battle to be returned to my rightful category – a category in which, based on the racing times I've achieved in recent years, I would win medals for Great Britain. Unlike in the Olympic Games, the criteria for Paralympic selection are not transparent. Despite being ranked number one in the UK in the 100m sprint, and number seven in the world, I was not selected for the 2012 Games.
And then there is the issue of equipment – illustrated by the Pistorius row over blade length, but not confined to it. Many disabled athletes rely on equipment, and this varies in quality. Superior wheelchairs and state-of-the-art prostheses can give athletes an unfair advantage over less well-equipped rivals. How can athletes from less well-off countries possibly compete as equals when they have no access to any sort of equipment, let alone the latest Paralympic mod cons? Haitian athletes Nephtalie Jean Lois and Josue Cajuste had to borrow equipment when they arrived in the UK. In addition, I am the UK's only black female Paralympian, and more could be done by UK Athletics and others to encourage more black athletes to get involved. When it comes to able-bodied sport, of course each body is different. But what they have in common is that all of them are whole and healthy and strong. Whether a runner comes from Rwanda or Rochdale, as long as they have ground under their feet to practise on, all have an equal opportunity to win.
As disabled athletes, our imperfect bodies will always be unequal: the swimmers with short legs competing against those with no legs; those with one leg racing against those with two. Some of these inequalities cannot be ironed out. But others are deliberately manufactured by human beings and must be eliminated. While it is wonderful that so many people want to celebrate the real achievements of disabled athletes, few shine a light into some of the darker corners of this sport. The same rigour that roots out injustice in able-bodied elite sport must be applied to disabled elite sport.
Many Paralympic competitors are inspirational, demonstrating exceptional athleticism and overcoming tremendous adversity. For me there is no bigger thrill than tearing round the track with the wind in my face. But I want to compete with my peers, not with those who are more able-bodied than I am. And I want athletes like the Congolese wheelchair racer, Dedeline Mibamba Kimbata, to have a wheelchair as good as that of her rivals from richer countries, so that she can compete fairly with western racers. The winners and losers of the disabled world's most prestigious sporting event should not be determined by global postcodes and bank balances, nor by arbitrary classification or selection decisions. But sadly they are.
More needs to be done to ensure that all disabled athletes are competing in their rightful class: the selection process must be made accountable. Athletes from poorer countries must get more support so that they can compete as equals. Ensuring justice in Paralympic sport is far more challenging than in the able-bodied equivalent, but in order to preserve the sport's integrity, it must be done.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/06/paralympic-injustice-oscar-pistorius
I'd read one on the wheelchair problem a couple of weeks ago.
Was good to remember to get one on the inequality topic up.
========
'We can't afford to compete with you': France accuses Britain of techno-cheating (... again)
The French Paralympic team deputy boss said Brits investment was turning the event 'into Forumla 1'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2197033/We-afford-compete-France-accuses-Britain-techno-cheating---again.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
========
Two classes at the Paralympics
[ insert image from original link below ]
08-09-2012
Athletes like the amputated runner Thin Seng Hong from Cambodia cannot afford expensive protheses and wheelchairs. More support is needed for disabled athletes, 80 percent of whom live in developing countries.
Her hands folded on her back, standing in stooped posture, and talking in a soft voice, Thin Seng Hong looks a bit like a party guest who's imagined the event a bit differently. "I'm impressed, it's a great experience," the petite woman says quietly. Her smile looks a bit forced, her words don't seem to fit her body language. Thin Seng Hong is standing in the interview zone of the Olympic stadium, buzzing spectators all around her. To her right, a Dutch runner with protheses hugs her coach with a scream of joy, and on her left, a Japanese athlete in a wheelchair is giving an interview to a dozen journalists.
Thin Seng Hong looks lost. She has lost her right lower leg. She comes from Cambodia, where the percentage of amputated people is the highest in the world, due to the many landmines. Although the Cambodian team could be large, Thin Seng Hong is the only Cambodian athlete in London.
The stars of the 14th Summer Paralympics are Oscar Pistorius or Alessandro Zanardi. They are talented and practice hard, and they also have high-tech equipment: The pair of protheses which make South African Pistorius run so fast cost 20,000 euro. The featherlight handbike that helped former formula one racer Alessandro Zanardi win his time trial gold medal sells for 6,000 euros.
Both athletes are the peak of a Paralympic elite: 40 percent of the 4,200 participants are from just nine rich countries. Altogether, 165 nations are represented. The Paralympics don't reflect reality, since according to the World Health Organization, or WHO, out of a billion people with disabilities, 80 percent live in developing countries.
Like runner Thin Seng Hong. In 2005 she started doing competitive sports, but she soon had to stop, since she could not gain any support. People with disabilities suffer exclusion and discrimination in Cambodia and dozens of other countries. Friends of Thin Seng Hong collected donations and bought a prothesis for her for some 2,000 euros. That sum is peanuts for athletes like Oscar Pistorius or Alessandro Zanardi - yet it equals three annual salaries for Thin Seng Hong, who dreams of opening a souvenir stall in Cambodia. "With a better prothesis I would have run faster," the 29-year-old said. She dropped out in the preliminary rounds of the 100 and 200 meter races. Still, she calls her prothesis her lucky leg.
The Paralympics represent a two-class society, though the differences are becoming smaller. In 1988 only 61 countries were present at the games in Seoul, while in London, it's almost three times more. Some 16 nations sent athletes for the first time. And there could have been more: Athletes from Malawi and Botswana had to cancel their trips shortly before the opening ceremony, because according to the British paper The Guardian, they had not been able to find enough sponsors.
"It's one of our most important goals, to widen the paralympic movement," said Philip Craven, president of the International Paralymic Committee (IPC). He added that this would enhance the levels at the competitions, as well as improving the image of people with disabilities in poor countries.
Like the International Olympic Committe (IOC), the IPC also distributes wildcards to athletes from emerging eceonomies and developing countries who were not able to qualify for the Paralympics through contentional qualifications. One of these 61 special permits for 50 countries went to Thin Seng Hong. Her story is supposed to inspire Cambodians who are handicapped because of the civil war. However, Thin Seng Hong's races were not shown on TV, and no Cambodian journalists traveled to London.
The IPC received thousands of requests for wildcards, but it has far less money than to the IOC. In earlier interviews, Thin Seng Hong demanded a stronger focus on developing countries, but she was not prepared to repeat these arguments in London. Did the IPC request athletes to refrain from criticism? Or did the Cambodian government intervene?
The IPC is dependent on partners, for instance the organization "Motivation." This organization has developed materials for cheap wheelchairs used for tennis and basketball, and distributes them at a cost of just 550 euros instead of 5000 euros. At current, some 4,000 of these wheelchairs are being used in 50 countries.
Rüdiger Herzog, who works for the Duderstadt-based Otto Bock company in Northern Germany, elaborated on the problem. "Many teams cannot afford technicians for the Paralympics, their equipment is old and broken," Herzog said. The company is a world leader in prothetics and organizes the technical workshop at the Paralympics. In London, there are 80 technicians providing 14 tons of equipment and some 15,000 spare parts. But these figures don't mean much to most athletes at the Paralympics. Out of the 13 athletes from Kenya, for instance, only one is dependent on his wheelchair.
The IPC has been strenghening education projects: Administrations, teachers and coaches are being made more aware of the value of disabled sports. Now, 15 percent of people in the world have some kind of impediment - given the ongoing wars and conflicts, that figure is likely to increase. Still, only between 2 and 3 percent of disabled children attend school. In Cambodia for instance, there are hardly any disabled-accessible playgrounds or gyms.
Yet Thin Seng Hong hopes that she will not bet he only athlete from her country to travel to the
next Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She would love to run again in the same stadium
with the millionaire posterboy Oscar Pistorius. Even though they are still worlds apart.
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16225400,00.html
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=23277
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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