Let us abolish the Paralympics
We often talk about equal opportunities and equal dignity, but also when we try to apply these principles with the best will and in good faith, we sometimes end up to fall in even a more subtle form of segregation and distinction. An example?
The Paralympics. A superb initiative: it is really beautiful, fabulous, spectacular to see how a disabled athlete can do things that are difficult to achieve even to those who are not disabled. Skiers, cyclists, and even basketball players, a sport that generally is associated not only to those who are not disabled, but to exceptional characteristics in terms of shutter speed and height.
So what? Where is the problem? The problem is that this is anyway a secondary event, which has many difficulties to obtain the right visibility to media audience. So, from these considerations, my proposal stems:
FROM NEXT YEAR LET US ABOLISH THE PARALYMPICS
that is, let us move races and matches for disabled athletes to the traditional Olympics Games. As there are male and female events, so we can add male and female events for people with disabilities. There are already some sports, such as archery, where people with disabilities compete together with the non-disabled athletes, even in the same event. Where it is possible, let us do it; where it is not possible, as in basket, let us add new races and matches for disabled athletes to the the traditional ones, but in the same Games, to give them the same room that we give to the other events, even in terms of time slots on television.
And let us do it not just in the Summer and Winter Olympics, but also in any world and national competition, in any sport demonstration and tournament. Let us sustain, in addition to the heroes of the national and world sport, these men and women who, like any other athlete, can demonstrate how even the heaviest limits can be overcome by force of will and commitment. But not in a “second legue” world, that we remind once in a while to put in place our consciousness, but always: in our world, among us, as among us they should always be.
Paralimpiadi..non “Paraolimpiadi”.
La parola “Paralimpico” deriva dal prefisso greco “para” (che significa “parallelo”) e il termine “Olimpico” (le Paralimpiadi come parallelo alle Olimpiadi).
Giusta considerazione, la tua. Quello che temo e` che, se da un lato una tale idea probabilmente aumenterebbe il pubblico alle gare degli atleti disabili, probabilmente ridurrebbe ulteriormente il loro spazio in televisione.