I bet you’ve been obsessed with the Olympic Games and now you miss cheering on our athletes, right? But what you probably don’t know is that the games are back, and for 12 days we’re going to have the chance to chase many medals with big names in the sport once again.Â
The opening of the seventeenth edition of the Paralympic Games will be on August 28. Spread over 22 modalities, 4,400 athletes will be competing in sports like athletics, blind soccer, wheelchair basketball and many others. This year, as well as the Olympic Games, the Paralympics will also happen in France, in Paris.
Paralympic hurdles
Although it offers the same structure and competition places, it will not have the same visibility and media coverage as the Olympics. This lack of prominence in the media and encouragement from society is already something that is pertinent in the development of the games, which for a few years have been trying to ensure more space among world competitions.
Events like these are extremely important in the fight to value and include these people in a society in which not just sports athletes, but many people with disabilities, do not feel like they belong to the world they live in just because of their physical or mental condition.
History behind the games
The history behind the creation of the games already shows the importance that competitions like that have in the lives of these people. The Paralympic Games first appeared in 1948, when Stoke Mandeville, a German neurologist, decided to create a competition for his paraplegic patients to find a way to improve and adapt in a world that abandoned them. The results were so positive that in 1960 the Paralympic Games were made official and continue to this day.
Over the years, more and more stereotypes have been broken, and improvements in infrastructure, support programs and awareness campaigns have been established, which, despite this, is still an unfinished fight. The underrepresentation of this event in the media is a historical issue, with prejudice and discrimination present in society, which, although it has had some improvements over the years, is still notable for the discrepancy in relevance between competitions.
Paralympics nowadays
Even today, ableism and prejudice against people with physical or mental disabilities is still a factor that contributes to the lack of encouragement for these sports. For the media, it’s not profitable and beneficial to invest in a competition that will not bring much return to the public. But at the same time, people’s lack of interest is a result of this lack of visibility. All of this, then, is part of a vicious circle that needs to be broken.Â
The point is that there are many elite Paralympic athletes who have never received half the support and encouragement from the government and media corporations as Olympic athletes, for example. Despite this, what instigates and encourages these competitors is that these competitions are unique opportunities since sport is an area that works on motor and mental conditions, which helps in the diagnosis of patients, in addition to developing confidence and self-esteem.
Brazil, for example, like Rebecca Andrade and Bia Souza, has many athletes with strong names for this year’s Paralympics, such as Alan Fonteles (athletics), Talisson Glock (swimming) and many others. These are professionals who train intensely and are absurdly physically prepared, just like any other athlete. Despite not being given the same opportunities, they continue to fight to do their best in any competition.
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The article above was edited by Malu Alcântara.
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