#the Paralympics

[cy-cyborg]

Hey, just so everyone knows, the Olympics and the Paralympics are two separate events.

They are run/overseen by two separate organisations (the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee) and Paralympians are not Olympians (unless they are/have competed in both, of course, but to my knowledge there isn't anyone doing that this year, though there have been a few athletes who did in the past).

If you're talking about things that effect both groups of athletes, say "Olympians and Paralympians", if you're talking about things that only effect the Paralympians or people who are competing in the Paralympics, say "Paralympians". If you're talking about a former athlete who previously competed in the Paralympics, they are not a "former Disabled Olympian", they are a former Paralympian. If you are writing articles or posts about Olympic events/controversies, don't tag the Paralympics unless you actually bring them up in said post or article.

The Paralympics are not "the disabled events at the Olympics" - they are their own thing.

I know to outside perspectives this seems pedantic but there's a very good reason these events are separated the way they currently are. Any time a disabled and abled sporting event is under the same banner, information about the disabled athletes is overwhelmingly drowned out, to the point that even if you know what you're looking for, it will be hard to find things about us (e.g. i spent a few hours today just trying to find out if certain countries have paralympic teams this year, but only got results about those countrys' olympic teams).

Do i wish this didnt have to be the case? Yeah, if you asked me back in the days when I used to play, I would have said they should be one event, but unfortunately we arent there yet, and they still need to be separated both to reduce confusion/being drowned out, and for other reasons that are beyond the scope of this post. Using different terms for our events (Olympics/Paralympics) is supposed to help alleviate these kinds of isses but it doesn't work when people lump us back in together anyway. This is especially important now when so many people are getting their info about these events via social media from other every-day people talking about them instead of from big news sources (regardless of your thoughts on whether this is a good or bad thing)

[cy-cyborg]

[ID: the image in the original post is a screenshot of a post showing Valentina Petrillo, a white trans woman with greyish-blonde hair in a blue Italian sprinter's uniform. The photo on the left shows a close up of her, while the one on the right is more zoomed out, showing the upper half of her torso. The caption reads "so - now that imane khelif is getting her vengeance, time to turn your heads to the paralympics. Time for allies to put their money where their mouths are and back a trans woman that will be competing." /End ID]

Her name is Valentina Petrillo and she is a visually-impaired sprinter.

Time to support her, because even without the racism element I expect she will be getting some flak from Awful, Awful People.

[yellow-dress-basil]

Since the Paralympics are happening and I’m seeing all sorts of people saying “See? This person doesn’t let their disability stop them!”

I would like you to remember that Paralympions are OLYMPIC LEVEL ATHLETES.

How would it feel if I compared your output to that of a literal olympic athlete and used that to justify not helping you or giving you what you need?

Oh, well Michael Phelps and Simone Biles can do it - why can’t you?

Thats how you sound.

[blumineck]

This one's just for kicks!

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[alnair-jpg]

Olympics AU: Grover Underwood

And a reminder that the Paralympics are still going on Right NOW- until September 8th!

Also @grandpakronos - I tried to leave room for Grover to still be Percy’s manager somehow 😉

[autisticbokutoenthusiast]

post by @ lucyedwardsofficial on instagram showing how the paralympics includes blind/visually impaired viewers of goalball!

[aro-absol]

I'm watching the opening ceremony of the paralympic games right now, and I noticed there's something healing about seeing so many disabled in one place, all just celebrating their participation. Seeing so many manual wheelchair users with and without power assists, powerchair users, both with lightweight folding powerchairs and bigger powerchairs that provide more support. Mobility scooter users, crutch users, cane users, blindness cane users, and so many more. I think I even spotted a service/guide dog. And then there are people who are otherwise visibly disabled. Amputees of all kinds, people with other limb differences, people with dwarfism and people who limp.

And not just that: I saw so many disabled people wearing traditional clothes of their countries, disability people waving the flags of their respective countries, and a big crowd cheering on them.

Yes, they are the world's best athletes, and they all deserve every bit of applause they get on the basis of their athletic accomplishments alone. But they're also very much disabled, and I love how normal it feels to be visibly disabled to me right now because of them. Because they walk down the Avenue des Champs Élysées with people from all over the world watching them, like it's the most normal thing for disabled people to do ever.

It just makes me so happy. I know not everything is perfect with the paralympics but I just need to happy vent right now.

[brasildaily]

Gabriel dos Santos of Brazil wins the gold medal in the Men's 50m Backstoke S2 swimming final at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, in the Paris La Defence Arena, Nanterre, west of Paris, on August 31, 2024. 

[racingliners]

Paralympics PSA!!!

If you watched the Olympics and loved it then you should 100% watch the Paralympics because it's just as great and in some cases the sports are even more insane than the Olympics (looking at you Wheelchair Rugby, affectionately also known as Murder Ball).

This year the Paralympics will be available to watch in over 160 countries on the Paralympic Games YouTube channel for the first time ever. And on the Paralympics website there's a full list of the official broadcasters for each country.

Root for your athletes, of pick a random country and root for them, the most important thing is ensuring that disability sport gets the showcase it deserves

[cy-cyborg]

I realised my recent paralympics posts could be read as, "i hate the paralympics" kind of stuff and thats not what i wanted. Its important to be able to critisise the things we love, and the reason why i had so many strong feelings/opinions is because i do genuinely love and care about the Paralympics and disability sports as a whole. So with the paralympics due to start in a few weeks (the 28th of August) please, if you're able to, tune in, even if it's just for the highlights.

The Paralympics themselves have a lot of issues which I already talked about, but a good amount of those issues stem from a perceived lack of interest/care from the public and the idea that "no one will care" if things arent right for us. It's much harder to justify not paying the athletes as much as their abled counterparts when they get the same publicity, it's harder for the organisers and people behind the scenes to get away with mistreatment when there's more eyes watching and more pressure to fix the issues. The athletes deserve respect, they deserve equal pay (which mostly comes from advertisers/sponsors, which depend on viewership) and their hard work deserves to be seen as more than just a funny joke or inspiration porn tear-jerker. Engage with places that treat the event and participants with the dignity it deserves.

If you're in Australia, channel 9 will be showing and streaming the highlights for free, but Stan Sports will be showing everything from every event - which is an absolutely MASSIVE thing. The entire paralympics have never been televised in Australia before, its only ever been highlights and some of the games of the more well-known sports. It sucks its locked behind a premium paywall but so was the full Olympics coverage this year, so it's not fully unique to us at least.

As for international viewers, try and find where things are for you and if they aren't being shown, put pressure on your TV networks/streaming services to include it for next time, or to include similar things like the disabled events at the commonwealth games (for those in commonwealth countries) or other global disabled sporting events - which can include sports not in the Paralympics!

[pwhl-mybeloved]

[lupusbaby]

Saw this on Facebook and if I see one more post like this that weaponizes the Paralympics I am going to punch my own face :)

The Paralympic athletes are INCREDIBLE, there is absolutely no doubt about that.

AND- do you know how many disabled people grieve and cry over all of the things that are no longer possible because of their disability? It’s not a matter of positive thinking or making excuses. Leave disabled people alone and stop pretending anything is possible if you just have ✨the indomitable human spirit✨

And PLEASE for the love of gods, stop putting pressure on disabled people to be your inspiration porn. ESPECIALLY when the pressure is in order to make our suffering more palatable for you.

I promise if I could positive think my legs into working I would not be struggling so much :)

[ID: black and White Photo of a left shoulder & left knee amputee biking with sports suit and helmet on a stadium track. It's captioned "if it's important to you, you'll find a way!! if not, you'll find an excuse!! ... See more /END ID]

[demaparbat-hp]

Toph as a Goalball player 💪💚

[currentlyembracingthevoid]

And for everyone who's following the Olympics right now dont forget that from the 28th of August to the 8th of September the Paralympics are on as well and they're also absolutely worth watching

[foxeswithsweaterson]

Y'all better show the Paralympics the same amount of love and attention btw.

[sedlex]

Olympics are done, Paralympics are done... now can I say how sad is gonna be randomly turning on the TV and not finding a semi-unknown sport played astonishingly well by somebody whose last name I can't pronounce?