Disabled Athletes

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/sports/disabled-athletes-suit-up-raising-questions-of-logistics-and-fairness.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

In the article “Forging Path to Starting Line for Younger Disabled Athletes” by Mary Pilon, is mainly about weather disabled body athletes—such as an athlete without a leg, blind, or deaf—should be able to compete competitively with able body athletes. Federal laws have long provided guidance on what students with disabilities are legally entitled to during the school day. But what exactly is reasonable accommodation in sports? Also, if you're in a wheelchair does it really mean you have an "advantage"??

Mary Pion definitely wants the reader to look at this topic from her perspective so she includes many stories of disabled athletes. She wants to show the reader how unfair it is to discriminate against disabled athletes and that disabled athletes don’t always have thing to their “advantage.” For example, Kiara Chapple—a tennis played deaf since birth—relied on an interpreter on the sideline to show the score and communicate what Kiara couldn’t to her doubles partner and opponent. ‘Chapple said she was surprised when, at a doubles tournament in her sophomore year in 2009, her interpreter was removed after complaints from a coach for the opposing team.’ I find this shocking and incredibly unfair especially after reading what Chapple had said. ““I thought it was unfair,” Chapple said. “They were discriminating, and I have rights to an interpreter. I felt sad. We lost the match, and I couldn’t communicate with anyone.” Mary Pilon also tells the story of Mary Callahan who began swimming when she was 6 and wanted to join her high school team but she got a rare disease and could not use her legs. She was told that she could not compete in any statewide competitions. “I really wanted to have a true swim meet,” Callahan said. “I wanted to compete against the best. Swimming is part of my high school experience.” Lisa Madigan took on Callahan’s case as a co-counsel and helped win a settlement in September that allowed her to swim at the state meet, along with at least six other high school girls with disabilities. “We didn’t change much,” Renee Miller, Callahan’s swim coach, said of how the team accommodated Callahan in the pool. “We made sure we had a bus to accommodate a wheelchair so she could travel with us and made sure that schools we traveled to could accommodate her.” This made me really hopeful and confident that in the not too far future disabled athletes will be able to participate competitively and that they won’t have to fight to get there.

This is an issue that I have been thinking a lot about recently. I think about what would happen if I had an accident and lost a leg…how would I run track? I probably wouldn’t be able to play softball or tennis. Now that I’m thinking about it, sports are a major part of my life and I wouldn’t be able to live without them. I feel like what Callahan was able to do worked because she had a team that was probably very supportive of her. If I were to lose a leg, I feel like my team would go through the pain with me—we would all be in it together. But what about tennis? How could I run? If I got one of those metal running devices would people discriminate against me because they’d think I have an “advantage”? I like to run but running competitively and in a real race is not only a lot more fun, but it really pushes me to excel. I think there are ways disabled athletes can participate in competitive sports and it’s not always to their advantage…