‘I’m handing back my medal’: Is Paralympic sport classification fit for purpose?
‘I’m handing back my medal’: Is Paralympic sport classification fit for purpose?: Athletes are grouped depending on the level of their impairment to try to ensure fair competition. With medals being handed back, officials alleging dirty tricks, and calls for an independent system to judge levels of disability, is Paralympic sport losing trust?
A File on 4 special – Paralympic Sport – Fair Play?– spoke to athletes, parents, coaches and classifiers, and uncovered claims of tactics including the taping up of arms, taking cold showers in trunks and even surgery to shorten limbs in a bid to cheat the system.
Such abuse of the process has been described as “akin to doping”.
lawyers for governing body the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) are investigating whether several athletes and coaches have deliberately exaggerated disability to boost their chance of winning.
The classification system itself has also been criticised, with concerns classes have been opened up, allowing less impaired athletes to compete.
British T37 200m sprinter Bethany Woodward won a silver medal at the London Paralympics. But she gave up her funding and walked away from the sport, claiming she had lost faith in the way the team was selected.
She said: “In London 2012 there was no-one in my classification I thought shouldn’t be there… but then suddenly classes seemed to be opening up. It was like a snowball of lots of people coming in and no way of saying: ‘Hold on, is this right?'”
Woodward, who has cerebral palsy, told File on 4 that during a relay event in the past four years, the inclusion of one of her team-mates was “giving us an unfair advantage”.
As there is no suggestion the athlete has done anything wrong, the BBC has chosen not to name them.
“[I was] heartbroken. I feel like we won a medal I don’t believe was true,” said Woodward. “I don’t want this medal any more… I can step away with a clear conscience.
“It’s not about world records, gold medals. Paralympic sport is about disabled people pushing themselves and overcoming their diversity.
“Handing back this medal will mean all the medals I won are to do with me, my cerebral palsy and my strength.”
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Liz McTernan, a medal-winning Para-triathlete and record-breaking hand cyclist, said: “I think people need to have their bubble burst actually. Because we’re not all inspiring, we’re not all ethical.”
McTernan, who has gone through classification in seven different Para-sports, added: “There are people out there who only care about getting their funding from the national governing body and getting a gold medal around their neck.
“If I had a gold medal from faking it or being the least impaired person in my category, I wouldn’t feel like it was worthwhile. It’s akin to doping.”
Paralympic wheelchair racer John Smith agrees.
“It’s not all about doping to be a cheater,” he says. “If you know you’re in the wrong category, racing against people who’ve got no chance of beating you, you may as well be on drugs.
“When I was classified they asked: ‘What do you think you are?’ To get medals… all you’ve got to do is lie a little bit.
“Some people you can look and see they’re in the wrong category, but no-one bats an eyelid because they love these gold medals.
“Somebody said to me when I first started that when you get good you enjoy it less because it becomes like a business. You’re a piece of meat with a number stuck on your back and if you don’t perform, you’re gone. That’s the cold, hard truth of it.”
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