We Are Athletes Too


This past February marked an event in sports that brought the world together. There are very few of these. Even though sports is a universal activity in almost every country, only two events tend to get the world together and stop the fighting; they are The World Cup in soccer and The Winter and Summer Olympics. Every four years or so, these events take center stage, and everybody forgets about the drama going on in the world for a couple of weeks, but there is an event that also occurs every four years that many people are not aware of.  

Every four years at the same site as either the Summer or Winter Olympics, there is another sporting event. It is known as the Paralympics. It is not only sad that the rest of the country does not keep up with such Paralympics activities such as hockey in the winter and basketball in the summer, but it is also sad that the United States is the worlds leading supporter of disability rights but has very little support for its disabled athletes.

This time the Paralympics are in Sochi as were the Winter Olympics. For the first time this year, the NBC family of networks presents an unprecedented 54 hours of coverage of the Paralympics. While the “able-bodied” Olympics drew a record audience in February, the Paralympics are living up to low expectations and not drawing nearly as much of an audience. In the United States or worldwide, credit must be given to other nations as their margin of support is much greater than that of the United States. This is sad for me because I recently graduated from a school that promotes disabled individuals; they even promote a small contingent of disabled sports. So I guess it hits me more challenging than most who will read this, but I must raise a question.  If we are the world’s leader on disability rights, and we do not even support disabled athletes, what does that say about our treatment of disability in this country at all? Just some food for thought. We are not our disabilities, but we are people and athletes just like everyone else.

The Paralympics close on Sunday, and we will have to wait four years for the cycle to repeat itself as far as winter sports are concerned. However, in 2016, the Paralympics summer games will be held. It is my hope by then that disabled sports are brought into the 21st century and given the respect and support they deserve, but I doubt that will happen.

 

For further reading or information, please visit http://www.teamusa.org/

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