Cheating scandal has cast a dark shadow over the super humans
Cheating in the Paralympics is not new. it’s just different. go back a decade or so, and there was a practice called autonomic dysreflexia. it can occur quite naturally so is hard to detect. the athlete ties a catheter to keep the bladder full, creating a backwash to the kidneys. this puts huge stress on the body and, bizarrely, starts a power surge.
the same effect can be accomplished by sitting on painful objects or strapping in tightly to the point of numbness. the body reacts, which can increase performance — or cause a stroke. Your choice.
So, on the day the games begin in Rio de Janeiro, the row over Paralympic classification is not extraordinary. it’s just different. Olympians use drugs and while that path is open to Paralympians, too, there are more complex ways for a disabled athlete to cheat where the evidence leaves no chemical trace.
they can pretend to be something they are not. they can play up the disadvantage to get placed in a weaker field. and that is bad enough.
What makes the classification scandal looming over these Paralympics so potentially harmful is the insinuation that national associations may be complicit. that the desire to win medals and the direct link now established between medals and funding makes it tempting for a sport to deliberately misclassify.
Bethany Woodward, a t37 200 metres silver medallist for great Britain in 2012, hinted at this. ‘they have brought in people who are not like me in terms of disability,’ said Woodward (below), who has cerebral palsy. ‘What’s the point? i can’t compete like i used to.’
Who are this mysterious ‘they’? the implication is UK athletics, who classify Paralympic track and field, although ultimate responsibility lies with the international Paralympic Committee.
Mike Cavendish, performance programme manager for UK athletics, stated in an internal email that athletes have ‘knowingly pursued classifications that they know to be incorrect, simply to gain a competitive advantage’. he went on to say that his organisation’s sole aim was to ‘maximise the chances of gold medal success’.
this is where UK athletics appear to be compromised, even if their denials are fierce.
there was a time when the Paralympics were as much about inclusion as competition. the ‘superhumans’ tagline that proved so effective in 2012 was proof of that. While acknowledging the magnificent athleticism on display, it also sought to celebrate the metaphorical victory of every competitor, not just the medal winners.
nobody claims the entire field in an Olympic event are superhuman, although they probably are. Just to get on the start line beside Usain Bolt is an achievement beyond all but the smallest percentage of humanity.
Yet no runners are feted for coming last in the 100m. By contrast, all Paralympians are labelled superhuman. it is the reason the reporting of the event often focuses as much on the journey and the triumph of the spirit as the outcome.
nobody ever runs a bad race at the Paralympics because just to be there is to have conquered. that is why Jody Cundy’s pure fury at being disqualified in 2012 came as such a shock. Swearing, raging and appearing ready to physically confront the commissaire who made the decision, he reacted just as an Olympic cyclist might. What was the matter with him? Didn’t he realise that just getting the chance to be unfairly thrown out was success? no, of course not. he wanted to win the damn thing.
So Paralympic sport has evolved. not to Paralympians. they were always deadly serious. But the wider world now has greater understanding. and with more meaning comes more money. there is a decent living to be earned for the best and by best we mean the ones with most medals. So classification, and the abuse of that system, is now of greatest significance.
AND some think the present scandal — UK athletics are to hold an inquiry into classification but not until after the games — is a good thing. if the athletes cheat, it shows they care, apparently — although one might think that the training required to sprint 200m with cerebral palsy was proof of that anyway. Yet how can a practice that further removes understanding of Paralympic sport be at all helpful?
those outside already struggle with evaluation. a conventional 100m is easily assessed. Fastest wins. So too at the Paralympics, but there are always unanswered questions. how to compute the various advantages and disadvantages. the blades. the intellectual, physical or sensory capacities. We don’t know. We can’t fully empathise.
all we can do is rely on those experts in classification and now even the experts might not know or they might be taken in; exploited by unscrupulous individuals or programmes that do not see beyond the short-term prize. and maybe that does make Paralympic sport just like its Olympic counterpart.
Yet, sadly, it seems all too earthbound, rather than not superhuman.