Disability and Sports Blog

               Have you ever heard of WeThe15 ? The global human rights movement that represents the 1.2  billion  people in the world with disabilities?  Over the past 15 weeks I have increased my knowledge about disabilities tremendously, yet today was the first time I have ever heard of WeThe15 . This was a common theme throughout the class. I learned something new each week about disabled sports that I had not known before. It felt as though there was always something new to learn. Although I come from a family that has experience with disabilities, there were still so many different areas that I discovered for the first time over the course of these 15 weeks.  Going into this class, I felt like I had a rather strong understanding of disabilities due to my family life. I have an extremely close relationship with my older sister who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when we were both little kids. We grew up living...

             It is frequently said that the internet allows us to have access to all the answers you could imagine. Considering we have our phones right at our fingertips, that seems reasonable to say. However, have you ever tried to find adaptive sports near you?  When trying to find sporting clubs or events for athletes with a hearing or visual impairment nearby, it may seem impossible. From my own experience, I used a bunch of different online searches to try and find local adaptive sporting events. Every time I tried the results were not what I was looking for. It became frustrating to try and find these events when the search engine said exactly what I was looking for with no answers. I could only imagine how discouraging that may feel for someone looking for groups to be involved in.  Luckily, Move United had the perfect way to search for adaptive sports. Using this search engine I was able to find local sporting clubs that include athl...

  In the 2000 Summer Paralympics there were 120 nations and 3,881 athletes competing in 551 events happening within 18 different sports.  Although these numbers seem rather high, there would be a dramatic decrease in participation for the following years. This devastating decrease was due to the removal of athletes with intellectual disabilities.  Athletes that have an intellectual disability were not allowed to participate in the Paralympics for some time due a cheating scandal that occurred in the Sydney Paralympic Games in 2000.  Shortly after the Spanish basketball team had won the gold medal in the 2000 Summer Paralympics, it was discovered that several members of the winning team had faked their impairments in order to gain an advantage over the other teams. This cheating scandal had eliminated the entire category for athletes with intellectual impairments in the Paralympics for the next few games.  This cheating scandal had shocked the Paralympics com...

  Living in America has always highlighted the importance of representing your country. Since elementary school, what it means to be an American has always been a topic heavily discussed. When it comes to our history with other countries, America is always represented as a strong and independent nation. With this being said, the discussion of other countries is not so similar, and is often debated.  A discussion of other countries that is often debated is whether or not Russia and Belarus should be allowed to participate in the Paralympics or the Olympics. There are many concerns from many countries about allowing Russia and Belarus to participate in both of the games. Some of the biggest concerns include the political ramifications, calculations about marketing, and morality. Since other countries struggle with this topic, there are many worries about how the decision will reflect these nations. Considering there are many unacceptable things that Russia and Belarus have done,...