PARIS (AP) — The message is clear: Paralympians are not participating. They are competing.
A number of athletes preparing for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris have made the announcement on their social feeds in recent days, reminding the world that Olympians are not the only athletes coming to Paris in search of gold.
The Games begin next week with the opening ceremony on Wednesday. The athletes and the Games’ social and creative teams have taken a more aggressive approach in their messaging, addressing disability and willing to risk unsettling their audiences to showcase the athletes and their personalities, not just their disabilities.
The International Paralympic Committee has released several YouTube videos to showcase the edgier side of its competitors, including: “Paris 2024: What Really Matters” and “Paris 2024: 100 Days to Go – Welcome to the Paralympics.” The tagline for both: “This is the Paralympics… they don’t play games.”
“A guy without arms”
If you don’t know the characters, the series “What Really Matters” starts on a surprising note. A friendly 5’6″ man grips the steering wheel of a car with his foot. He leans over to his passenger and asks with a sideways smile, “Is this your first time in a car with a man without arms?”
The guy without arms is Paralympic silver medalist Matt Stutzman, who made a name for himself as the “Armless Archer.” He maneuvers the car with his feet: left foot on the pedals, right foot on the steering wheel.
Stutzman’s co-driver is Chuck Aoki, a wheelchair rugby player who supports Stutzman on Team USA. In the YouTube series, Stutzman features Aoki and Paralympic athlete Scout Bassett, telling their stories from a different perspective and with a touch of humor.
“There’s this connection, it’s like an unspoken bond,” said Stutzman, who won a silver medal in the men’s individual compound at the 2012 London Olympics. “I may not know who Bassett is, but we both know that we both had to go through something special to even get to the level we are at today in the sport.”
Edgy takes
The IPC has been criticized for taking into account the disabilities of its athletes, but spokesman Craig Spence said this irreverent approach was necessary.
“When you talk to Paralympians, you realize they have a great sense of humor. They are not wrapped in cotton wool and shielded from society,” Spence said in an interview earlier this year.
“They like to laugh at themselves,” he said. “As do we all, and that’s why we tried to be really edgy on the Paralympic TikTok account.”
Spence said the criticism the IPC has received has largely come from people outside the disability community, and comments often ask who the admin of the account is – implying it is someone who makes fun of disability. But according to Spence, the “admin” is British 2008 Paralympian Richard Fox.
Some videos went viral on the account. In one video, single-stage cyclist Darren Hicks won gold in the paracycling time trial in Tokyo, with the audio track altered to sound like a Marine drill sergeant shouting “left, left, left.”
Another audio recording that shocked viewers in the comment section showed double amputee Zheng Tao hitting his head against the wall to win the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
This content allows Stutzman and his teammates to tell the world that they are not disabled people, but rather athletes with different abilities who happen to have a disability.
“It was the Paralympics and archery that showed the world that people with physical disabilities can literally do what everyone else can do,” Stutzman said.
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Ana Escamilla is a student in the undergraduate certificate program at the Carmical Sports Media Institute at the University of Georgia.
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