We all see the Special Olympics and how it showcases people with disabilities do extraordinary feats in sports history and prove that even people who can’t use their arms, legs or other body parts that they can do anything they set their mind to. But despite all their hard work and dedication and proof they can do the sport they set out to do, they still only get coverage only during the special Olympics.
You never see a headline saying “Timmy from the UK ran a 5k race despite being in a wheelchair.” and I don’t find that fair to the athlete, their parents or supporters of that person. It’s hard enough to be seen as an athlete when you look different or do the sport in a nontraditional way.
It’s not just people with physical disabilities; there are the ones that are neurodivergent too. It’s hard enough to travel with teammates, loud locker rooms, being around people you don’t know and just all the unknown. So, when we do things in athletics that are extraordinary, we deserve more attention. We need headlines that say “Young athletes with autism shoot more baskets in today’s game than anyone else.” Everyone deserves to be recognized for things that are out of their comfort zone.
Sports are also focusing on the most built and the one that can dunk or hit a homerun or whatever but it never shows anyone who is struggling. Even if an athlete has depression or anxiety nobody knows because those types of things never make the news. We need to know more about athletes than the stats, their relationship status or whatever team they switched over to.
If we focused on what matters more, then maybe athletes would get the help they need. We need disabled athlete role models so that when a child who is 6 years old but can’t run because of her disability, she needs to be able to see someone doing it despite that and encourage her to reach for her dreams. That is what sports should be about.
