Paralympic athletes may be cheats – that’s good

This new sporting row might, at last, show that disabled people have the same traits as everyone else

There’s a scandal brewing in the Paralympic world. Competitors and the disgruntled father of a competitor have claimed that cheating is harming the sport. More specifically, it’s alleged that some athletes have gamed the arcane but necessary classification system that ensures, as far as possible, fairness for athletes with wildly varying disabilities.

The reports, while unproven, have been taken so seriously that the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has provided written evidence to a Parliamentary hearing looking into classification. Our most decorated wheelchair athlete, Tanni Grey-thompson, has been called as a witness.

But should we be shocked that disabled athletes and their coaches might be just as competitive, determined, and yes, sometimes as dishonest, as their non-disabled counterparts? That, in fact, they may not all be sweet, inspirational, and saintly figures? There have even been calls for the investigation itself to be shut down in case it upsets disabled athletes, as if all those medals had been won for therapeutic basketweaving instead of for blood and sweat. What nonsense.

Of course, disability sport, including the Paralympics and Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, has been a powerful force for good. However, the idea that disabled people are too “nice”, or perhaps even too inept, to cheat, or that they should be protected even from any discussion of cheating, reveals a darker side to the disabled athletes’ national treasure status.

This is that disabled people generally are all too often regarded with a grisly, cloying sentimentality.

In fact, if there’s one thing people like me – parents of a child with a disability – are used to, it’s the head tilt. It comes when you mention your child’s disability for the first time, and is normally accompanied by a moue of concern, tragically knitted brows and a saccharine: “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Then come the ghastly stock phrases. “But they are so cheerful!” or “It takes a special parent to raise a special child”. The words “brave” and “sweet” may also appear.

People with disabilities face many barriers to full equality. Things that would help include physical access to buildings, an understanding of how they may communicate differently, help with the £550-a-month extra cost of disability, adaptations at work and home so they can live independently, and zero tolerance of bullying and hate crimes. Lack of these contribute to the sorry statistic that disabled people are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled people.

What doesn’t help is sentimentality. My teenage son is still offered kids’ stickers at the dentist, which he finds deeply insulting. The sing-song voice used by many health professionals drives him mad.

Patronising attitudes can go hand in hand with discrimination. Low expectations harm school performance. Who wants to employ, befriend or date a childlike paragon? How can disabled people achieve their potential if they are regarded as utterly different from everyone else and in need of segregation and protection rather than inclusion and independence?

Disabled people are often treated like the very old, when even those with the most acute intellects and sardonic sense of humour are dismissed as sexless, harmless “old dears”. Or indeed, similarly to how women in sport used to be treated, when they were forbidden to run 800metres lest their wombs fall out.

The Paralympics have certainly showed the impressive and inspiring nature of disabled athletes. But learning that some of them may be imperfect could also perhaps, ironically, be a good thing. Just as women couldn’t achieve equality while we were trapped on pedestals, disabled people and their families must be allowed to have the same range of virtues, flaws and personality traits as everyone. To be seen, in short, as fully human, not superhuman.

Disabled athletes today are, above all, athletes, and the notion that some of them may cheat should be refreshing, not come as a surprise – because cheating is what many athletes do.