For generations society held stereotyped views about disability. These negative opinions, based on generalization and assumption, discriminated against the disabled. But now things are changing. In all walks of life disabled people are blowing these views away. The world of sport is no exception.
Take Tanni Grey-Thompson from Wales, better known today as Baroness Grey-Thompson. Tanni was born with spina bifida and as a result is a wheelchair user. Yet she grew up to become a renowned athlete, competing in track events such as the 100 metres and wheelchair basketball. She began competing in the welsh Junior National Games. Within four years she was taking part in the Paralympic games in Seoul. She continued in the Paralympics up until 2004, by which time she had won eleven gold medals. As if this was not enough she also won the London Marathon six times. Since retiring from her sporting life Tanni has branched out into television presenting and campaigning on behalf of the disabled community. In recognition of her many achievements she was awarded an OBE and a life peerage.
A legend who, if not breaking the rules, certainly brings them into question is South African Oscar Pistorius. Oscar’s legs were amputated when he was a mere eleven months old, after he was born with no fibulas. Today he is known as a champion runner, a skilled tennis player and a wrestler. But Oscar found himself in the glare of the media when he was banned from competing with his non-disabled peers in the Beijing Olympics. He was using a radical new design of prosthetic limb made from carbon fibres. The argument for the ban was that these limbs gave him a technological advantage over the able-bodied runners. Oscar fought the ban and in 2008 it was overturned. He seems poised to take disabled sporting to a whole new level of participation. And he has the dubious honour of being named hot jock of the week on the web.
Over in the USA champion runner Marla Runyan has become an inspiration to many. Macular degeneration left her with a serious visual impairment. But Marla did not let this stand in her way. While at college she excelled at track events and went onto compete in the Sydney Olympics. During the heats for the 1500-metre sprint she scored the shortest time ever by an American female athlete. Sadly her vision continues to decline but her career is going from strength to strength, first as an ambassador for the deaf and blind, then as a writer, with her autobiography published in 2008. And perhaps the greatest achievement any of us face, parenthood, with the birth of her daughter in 2005.
In 2008 a series of statues unveiled in London commemorated great sports heroes from the East End. One of these outstanding athletes was Dagenham girl Beverly Gull. Childhood polio put Beverley in a wheelchair and a road traffic accident left her a paraplegic. In the aftermath of the accident she commenced a rehabilitation programme. Swimming was a part of the programme and a passion was sparked. She went onto win 8 medals for swimming in the Paralympics and broke 13 world records. Outside the pool Beverley has graduated from university with first class Honours, proved herself a talented photographer and received the MBE. She works as a disability advisor.
