Paralympic Trials 2008 Wheelchair Track

As the Olympic trials go on, Paralympic trials are also being held. Here's a clip from Eugene Oregon, where a video was taken by some very enthusiastic family members and coaches. Enjoy watching this exciting sport. 102 degrees on the track, the 1500 m race...



For a list of all the track and field results, go here.

Tatyana McFadden, who fought for the right to be included in wheelchair track events in high school, and who is a repeat Paralympian, is being featured on McDonald's cups as sponsorship opportunities for Paralympians increase. As a result of her efforts, Maryland passed legislation providing equal opportunities for participation in school sports that goes into effect tomorrow , July 1. Here's a short clip about her:

Equal opportunities in school sports, physical education in Maryland

Saw this on Patricia Bauer's blog a few moments ago and since it's a followup on a story I covered here, I'm going to blog about it, with due credit to her. Thanks, Patricia!

Good news out of Maryland - the General Assembly has passed a bill giving disabled athletes equal access to school sports and physical education. Tatyana McFadden, the Paralympic athlete who sued the school to compete on their track team, was behind the legislation.

The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill Monday night that will require county boards of education to allow students with disabilities to have equal opportunities to participate in physical education programs and on mainstream athletic teams.

The Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities Act came about in part because of Tatyana McFadden, 18, a wheelchair athlete from Atholton High in Howard County. During her high school track career McFadden has fought, twice in court, for inclusion in races and for the right to have wheelchair races count in the team standings.
via washingtonpost.com

The bill will go into effect on July 1 and school districts will have 3 years to implement the changes.




h/t Patricia Bauer

"Running Out of His Lane"

I'd like to give a hat tip to Penny Richards over at DisStudies Temple U for the link to this article by Kenny Fries in the Washington Post about Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee runner who is trying to qualify for the Olympics. Fries' article is interesting. He writes:

"By contesting the notion that a disabled runner cannot, and should not, compete with nondisabled runners, Pistorius has challenged preconceived ideas not only of sport but of what it means to be human."

I've written about this story before. I've also written about Tatyana McFadden, the Paralympic high school track athlete who lost her court bid to compete in high school track and have her score count toward her team's score. (See label below). And, as some of my readers know, I've played competitive wheelchair tennis for the past decade, so I have a few thoughts to add to this debate -as a disabled athlete.

Controversy over these two athletes has run high. It strikes me, based on my experiences, that it is when athletes with disabilities not only try to " run out of their lane", as in compete against able bodied athletes, that there is a hot debate, but this heats up mostly when those athletes can and do win.

I saw this happen in my own experiences playing against able bodied tennis players. Because I am a quadriplegic, I have to attach my tennis racket to my hand with duct tape due to a lack of grip and dexterity. I don't look very imposing before I start playing - let's face it. I'm in a wheelchair and I have a tennis racket attached with duct tape.

So on a few occasions when I've been over at a local club practicing and I've had able bodied tennis players ask me to "play a few points", none of them really expected too much of me. One guy insisted he didn't even need shoes so he tried to play against me in flip flops. After he lost a few points, he said to me "Hey, you can really play! I didn't know that" as if I'd somehow fooled him and then said he was going to find his sneakers. I never saw him again. I've had other players wipe their brows after a few points and suddenly decide they have an appointment somewhere and have to leave. One woman looked over her shoulder at the parking lot and said to me "I hope no one is watching you beat me like this. I'll never live it down!"

And then there were the comments, like "Well I guess that wheelchair is faster than running for the ball" and "Maybe you don't get as heated up as we do when running" and (my personal favorite) "I could hit the ball better if I taped my racket on too." (I always tell folks they can borrow my duct tape. One woman took me up on this only to discover it limited her to one grip and she shook her head confused saying "I guess it isn't an advantage to tape it on.")

Having this happen over and over again leads me to think that none of these folks wanted to play tennis with a disabled person who, well, plays better than them.

So when I hear the pundits crying out that Pistorius' blades give him an advantage over the other runners, my ears go up. Ahh, a familiar tune. What's really going on here?

When Tatyana first ran track meets in her wheelchair, there were concerns about injuries. Then she won meets - and there were concerns about her score counting. She has an advantage, was the outcry.

You can't win. If you're not a good athlete, you might hurt someone. If you're too good, well, you have an advantage.

I've tried to just cover these stories without adding my experiences. But , in the end, I just can't help but compare. Some might say I just ran into a lot of poor sports over the years. But there you have it- that's what I think is going on.

Just pass me the duct tape.

Court ruling does not favor wheelchair athlete

Tatyana McFadden's bid to compete as a high school track athlete and be awarded points for her participation was not successful in last month's court ruling.

"U.S. District Court Judge Andre M. Davis agreed that Atholton junior Tatyana McFadden is experiencing irreparable harm because as a wheelchair competitor, she races in individual events but cannot score for her team.
But the judge ultimately ruled against her request for an injunction against the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, saying her situation was akin to that of other athletes - like divers and pole vaulters - who have competed in the past but not scored when the number of competitors in their individual events remained too low.
"The question is whether the constraints on McFadden's ability to earn points for her team differ in any material, legally cognizable ways from the constraints on the opportunity of similarly situated students," Davis wrote in a decision dated Saturday. "The court is constrained to answer that question 'no.'" Via Baltimore Sun

Public opinion has been negative with fears about injury and the competitive advantages enjoyed by superior athletes with disabilities the most common complaints. In this controversial case, many spoke of how Tatyana, a medal winner in the Paralympics, won with ease at many events, failing to distinguish her from lesser talented wheelchair athletes.

Tatyana acknowledged her disappointment (in the article I've linked to above), but indicated that she has won the right to participate in events and that some local events are awarding her points. This season she has skipped a few events choosing to participate in wheelchair sports events - where she won gold medals.

Amputee runner is too 'able bodied'?

[visual description: Oscar Pistorius, who wears two prosthetic legs, beats a competitor in a Paralympic meet.}

First Tatyana McFadden had to file a lawsuit to compete against able bodied runners in her wheelchair at high school events and now an amputee runner is being challenged about competing against able bodied runners in the Olympics because it is felt that his "high tech" prosthetics give him an unfair advantage against mere able bodied mortals.

All kidding aside, I see this as a backlash against disabled athletes who have worked for years to be good at their sport and, well, get better than many able bodied competitors. Take Tatyana, for example. She's already won medals in the Paralympics despite being in high school. So if you put her on a track with high school kids, with her experience and training, it's not the same as a wheelchair athlete who is not as gifted, talented and well practiced and experienced. I play wheelchair sports and know the skill level runs the gamut - as it does with able bodied athletes.

The same is true with amputees. So is the real question being asked: Should athletes with disabilities who can beat able bodied competitors be banned ? Because it's not as if there has been a rush of disabled athletes to sports who have taken over the competitions here. In fact, the amputee runner in question here still has not reached the Olympic qualifying times in his runs - which brings up the question of how much advantage there really is and how much of this is about perception of people with disabilities.

First of all, we're talking about a few very gifted and talented athletes here and, based on the comments I see on the web about both of them, there is a knee jerk reaction along the lines of banning them due to an unfair advantage due to their equipment which they need in order to, well, run.

The first comment (if you click above) talks about how an athlete should remove his limbs to give himself an advantage. That's just mean spirited and ableist to boot. And after following Tatyana's case, I can tell you that many comments made about her fall in the same category. It is one thing to calmly look at whether the hypothesis that athletes with disabilities have an unfair advantage and able bodied runners some kind of, well, accommodation . (Gee how's that for a concept to wrap your mind around?)

It is quite another for people to immediately jump to the conclusion that athletes with disabilities should be banned from participating. Especially in track, there are ways to adjust times to accommodate any real advantage that equipment gives to athletes. But we do have to be careful that the real problem here isn't that of image: that some disabled athletes have become better than able bodied ones.

It reminds me of the day one of my friends watched as I used my voice recognition to do a task on my computer and said "Wow, that works faster than the way I do it and my hands work." After that, she kept telling me over and over how it was great that I could "get my work done faster" than everyone else because of that "advantage". So she went out and bought voice recognition. I received a phone call a month later from her and she said "It didn't work for me the way it does for you." I asked her if she practiced with it and she replied "Oh no I don't have the time. "

I've used voice recognition for many years now and it does work well for me. I've put a lot of work and training into maximizing my skill at it. But I know many quads who don't use it as much as I do and it doesn't work as well for them either. So my 'advantage' was earned.

I wonder how many of the runners that Tatyana competes against would choose to use a wheelchair in their meets because of its advantage - if they were given that option. My guess is they would lack the arm strength and training to beat her even if they used the same equipment she does. That's certainly true of many other athletes in wheelchairs who have raced against Tatyana.

Even those who got to the Paralympics.

And a doctor who has studied the biomechanics of amputee runners has this to say to the IAAF which is questioning Oscar's eligibility for the Olympics: "“I pose a question” for the I.A.A.F., said Robert Gailey, an associate professor of physical therapy at the University of Miami Medical School....“Are they looking at not having an unfair advantage? Or are they discriminating because of the purity of the Olympics, because they don’t want to see a disabled man line up against an able-bodied man for fear that if the person who doesn’t have the perfect body wins, what does that say about the image of man?”

"According to Gailey, a prosthetic leg returns only about 80 percent of the energy absorbed in each stride, while a natural leg returns up to 240 percent, providing much more spring."

“There is no science that he has an advantage, only that he is competing at a disadvantage,” Gailey, who has served as an official in disabled sports, said of Pistorius."

Via NY Times

"In Maryland , A Fight to the Finish Line" - The story and my commentary on the high school athlete who wants to be included

[visual description: A photo of Tatyana in her everyday wheelchair.}

This news article updates the situation about Tatyana McFadden, a Paralympic high school wheelchair racer who has filed several lawsuits for the right to be included on her high school track team at events and have her results count in the team final.

According to Tatyana, she is now ostracized as she awaits a decision on the second lawsuit. Able bodied athletes have teamed up - against her - to the point where she practices alone, socializes with non-athletes at school and gets support from wheelchair athletes who understand and support her fight to be included. This is ironic since McFadden's desire to be included stemmed from wanting to be a part of a team - and be included as a member.

Able bodied runners - and some coaches - are threatening a boycott if McFadden wins her second lawsuit, claiming they will take runners off the track to leave her to race alone. In my opinion, they have already done that. And maybe the judge hearing this case needs to think ahead and put a sanction in place to disqualify teams who defy his court order, should he decide that McFadden has a right to race with her peers.

We can review the arguments here about what's fair to the sport, whether teams with wheelchair athletes would benefit from this ruling(not so far since judges penalized McFadden for a rule violation based on another runner's statement at the state championship, causing her team to lose first place), whether other athletes may be injured (none ever have with her racing) and on and on. What's interesting is that there is no debate going on here about ways to address these issues to include a wheelchair athlete.

It's part of the process of inclusion - the backlash against change and adhering to the status quo. We need to look at the history of disabled people - and other minorities - in this country to get the full perspective here. We achieve inclusion in different areas as time goes on. Education, employment, transportation , housing - and sports. To some advocates, inclusion in sports is not as important as other areas, but it is part of the overall picture. It has to do with having a society that includes all its members.

Would people be so upset if Tatyana raced and came in last or near the end all of the time? Would that better fit preconceived notions? When they argue that she has an "advantage" due to her wheelchair, do they realize how ridiculous that sounds? She uses a wheelchair all day long - it's not as if she climbs into one just to race! (I find it very interesting in reviewing the articles over the past several years that she is very seldom seen in her everyday wheelchair.) And let's face it - she's a Paralympic athlete. If there was an able bodied runner who had won an Olympic medal , wouldn't they expect her to be a valuable team member? How often do teams have years with good runs because they have talented athletes on the team? Is it somehow wrong if that athlete is in a wheelchair?

Those of us with disabilities who participate in the world know that there are many times when, due to the fact that we do things "differently" because of our disabilities, we are viewed as being inferior. Employers worry whether we can do the job. Landlords worry if we'll be good tenants. The assumption is that we cannot make the grade and meet the standards. Yet when we work hard and succeed our efforts may be discounted as coming from special treatment when in reality we are the ones who have achieved.

Inclusion does not mean that we fit into the world as it is. I am reminded of the words of Fr. Michael Lapsley:

" Don’t include us in your community, but together we must create a community which is for all of us."

How sad it is that a young girl's efforts toward inclusion have resulted instead in ostracism.