By Tom Scott
A recent opinion poll commissioned by the organizing committee of London 2012 (www.london2012.com) found that the UK public has a limited understanding of the Paralympic games and very little knowledge of the athletes who participate in them. Poll results show that 69% of the public cannot name a single Paralympian and only 27% can name Britain’s most successful athlete with a disability, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson (born with spina bifida), who won 11 Paralympic gold medals between 1988 and 2004, held over 30 world records, and won the London Marathon six times.
The statistics are rather disappointing in Europe, where the Paralympics receive more media coverage than do athletes with disabilities, who are generally more accepted than in the US. But other key findings revealed an overall positive public perception toward disability sports: 85% of the UK public believes that Paralympic athletes are as professional as nondisabled athletes and 93% feel that disability sports require just as much skill as other sports. The poll also indicates a lower awareness of the Paralympics and of Paralympians among younger age groups, particularly those under 24.
“I think it just shows where Paralympic sport is,” Grey-Thompson said during an interview with Telegraph. “If you look back to 1988 there was no mainstream coverage at all and 1992 was the first time we had any TV coverage. But it’s moving on and I would be really upset if by 2012, we’re in the same situation. We have to make sure that there are not just one or two athletes who can be named but 50 athletes. If you can do that in the mainstream, you should be able to do that in the Paralympics.”
In addition to conducting the poll, the organizing committee interviewed UK sports and news media correspondents to gather opinions on how to raise awareness for the 2012 Paralympic Games and enhance coverage. Suggestions included more personality-led Paralympic features and limiting the gap between the Olympic Games and the opening of the Paralympic Games to maintain public interest.
In a recent International Paralympic Committee press release, Sebastian Coe, London 2012 Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) chairperson, stated, “We want to use the power of the games to inspire change, and one of the key legacies the London 2012 Paralympic Games can leave is to change public and media attitudes towards people with a disability. This research gives us an important insight into attitudes towards Paralympic sport and we will use it to underpin our plans.” The British Paralympic Association hopes a good showing at the 2008 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, will help begin the process of raising awareness for 2012.
US Media Attention Lags
In the US, media coverage of athletes with disabilities still tends to be minimal. It’s a problem, of course, that reaches far beyond the Paralympics. Our finest athletes with disabilities may be lucky to have their performances shown on Webcasts or mentioned in small boxes of text in their local sports pages. But they’re not alone among people with disabilities in being ignored by the mainstream media.
Tatyana McFadden’s story is just one of many across the country that highlight the underlying issues of discrimination. McFadden, who has spina bifida, was not in search of more recognition, just inclusion. In 2006, the 16-year-old McFadden, a successful wheelchair athlete who won a silver medal for the 100-meter dash and a bronze medal for the 200-meter dash at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens when she was just 14 years-old, fought a legal battle against the Howard County school system in her home state of Maryland for prohibiting her to race alongside her Atholton High School classmates in track meets.
McFadden, who would be at an obvious advantage competing in her sports chair against girls without disabilities, stated that she wasn’t trying to claim unfair victories on the track; she just wanted to be on the track with others. The judge, citing the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which prohibits the exclusion of persons with disabilities from activities that receive federal funding, agreed, and ruled in her favor.
McFadden’s unwillingness to accept the discriminatory practices of her school district has had a lasting impact in Maryland, recently leading to the unanimous passage by Maryland’s General Assembly of a bill that requires schools to provide students with disabilities access to high school sports teams, either among themselves or with students without disabilities. The bill, titled “Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities” will take effect in July. Schools have three years to comply with the legislation and must submit their plans to the state’s education department this summer. If schools do not comply, the education department has the right to withhold funding and suspend programs. Maryland will be the first state to pass such legislation.
There are some who are opposed to the bill, believing it will hurt high school sports and lead to a lot of confusion. But the bill may become a landmark piece of legislation leading to similar bills being implemented in other states to protect the rights of athletes with disabilities. “There will always be people opposed to it…, but I can’t focus on the negative,” McFadden told the Baltimore Examiner. “I am trying to do a good thing and open doors for others.”
Hopefully in the near future we will have accomplished a lot more than raising public awareness about the Paralympians who represent our country and the blood, sweat, and tears it took for them to get there. McFadden is just one of many individuals with disabilities making an impact on our society. Her determination to gain equality in sports may one day have an impact on a much larger scale.
Tom Scott is staff editor.
