The Paralympics are an international, multi-sport competition following the Olympics that allows disabled athletes to compete in a variety of events.
The Paralympic Games include many events similar to those of the Olympic Games modified to accommodate athletes with impairments, however, where there are 40 total Olympic sports, there are only 28 total sports in the Paralympics.
First introduced in the 1960 Roman games, the Paralympics this year are a hub for over 4,400 athletes and 170 teams. The word “para,” meaning “alongside,” was introduced to the name in 1989, and is included in order to demonstrate how the Olympics and Paralympics work together in harmony to encompass all international athletes.
Despite the original intention for the two games to be equal, the Paralympic athletes are often regarded as overshadowed or underappreciated by their able-bodied Olympic counterparts.
After dominating in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Team USA moved into the Paralympics, continuing to break records and bring home medals. Team USA placed third in overall standings with 105 total medals, including 36 gold, 42 silver and 27 bronze.
“A total of 127 U.S. medalists graced the podium, including 53 first-time Paralympic medalists, and 29 athletes securing multiple medals,” according to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Team USA secured 2 golds in archery, 10 golds in athletics, and 10 golds in swimming, with Matt Stutzman breaking the World Record in men’s archery, also being the first-ever armless archer to win a Paralympic gold.
Leanne Smith and Christie Raleigh-Crossley set world records for their respective swimming events, and the USA women’s sitting volleyball team claimed a third consecutive title.
Although Team USA has secured these victories, amongst many others, the vast majority of the U.S. population is completely in the dark regarding the Paralympics. When asked, four GCSU students, including one student-athlete, stated they had not watched any of the Paralympic games.
Cross country student-athlete Shipley Smith stated he watched “the whole Olympics,” dedicating the most time to track, volleyball and ping-pong. These are all sports that are present in the Paralympics, however, Smith stated that he did not watch any of the games, despite seeing a few promotions for them.
The Paralympics were viewed so much less by Americans, especially Americans who showed interest in the Olympics. This speaks volumes when considering the popularity of disability representation in sports in the United States.
Interviews with two GCSU students shared that they did not watch any of the Olympics, beyond this, they expressed that they had never even heard of the Paralympic Games.
“I just didn’t know that existed. I’ve never seen anything about it. I think it’s a good thing, though,” explained one Sarah Peek, a Freshman Mass Communication Major.
“Yeah, I agree. I saw some promotion for the Olympics on my Instagram but I’ve never seen anything for the Paralympics. It seems cool.” added another. Added Alexis Pellegrini, a Freshman Environmental Science major.
The Paralympics are seemingly underrepresented in media, with the limited representation providing no opportunity for the event to expand beyond a set of select viewers.
Young people consume news and information at the highest rate from social media. This presents a disconnect, when the official Olympics Instagram account has 11,700 posts and 12.9 million followers, while the Paralympic Games have no Instagram account at all, official or unofficial.
The Paralympics seem to be a step behind in regards to expanding their audience and raising viewership. In continuation, oftentimes the small amount of media coverage the Paralympics receives is hindering rather than helping them.
When the media coverage and promotional coverage for the Paralympics is already limited, it can be damaging for the small amount of exposure regarding disabled athletes to be negative.
The disabled community has long struggled with being overlooked, not only on the international scale but also within smaller, individualized communities.
GCSU does have an acclaimed Student Disability Resource Center where disabled students can go to receive aid allowing them to achieve their full potential academically. The University does not, however, offer any services for disabled students to participate in physical outdoor sports.
As an NCAA Division 2 program, GCSU places an extreme emphasis on sports, with over 60% of students also participating in intramural sports. Despite this, there are no disability-specific sports at GCSU, nor are there specific programs for disabled students to play in standard sports programs.
Whether it be on an international or local scale, the disabled community lacks representation, which houses a variety of negative ramifications for the state of disability progress in the U.S.
