Paralympics – Gaming the System?
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2018
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last year, Assignment investigated whether some athletes and coaches game the Paralympic classification system in order to win medals.
We heard allegations that some competitors had gone to astonishing lengths such as taping up their arms to make their disability appear worse. A parliamentary select committee hearing looked into the way British Paralympic athletes are classified and questions were raised over whether the system was fit for purpose.
In this programme, we examine fresh claims of athletes exaggerating or even faking a disability to get ahead in para sports. We look at the case of an athlete where concerns have been raised after they competed in several different disability classifications.
A Paralympic gold medallist tells Assignment that he believes that gaming the system in para sports is at a similar level to cheating in able bodied sports and reveals the tell-tale signs that athletes may be trying to get into an easier classification.
Reporter Simon Cox speaks to a former international classifier – the people responsible for ensuring athletes are placed in the right category – who reveals how it is possible for classifiers to be fooled.
But the head of the British Paralympic Association says he does not believe cheating happens at any meaningful level.
The concerns raised by the programme come as a report by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee into sports governance which has examined classification in para sports is due to be published in the UK.
(Image: Paralympic Games Gold medal. Credit: Press Association)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | just how far will disabled athletes go to win medals. |
| 0:03.6 | I examine claims of cheating within Paralympic sport |
| 0:07.0 | and the top-level athlete accused of exaggerating her symptoms |
| 0:10.6 | to improve her chances of success. |
| 0:13.0 | Does the system need reform? |
| 0:14.5 | Find out with me Simon Cox. Take your Mark. |
| 0:24.0 | How far will disabled athletes go to win medals. |
| 0:28.0 | How far will disabled athletes go to win medals? |
| 0:31.0 | Earlier this year, assignment investigated how athletes and coaches game the system |
| 0:36.8 | in order to achieve success. What followed was a parliamentary hearing in the UK |
| 0:42.1 | into the way Paralympic athletes are classified |
| 0:45.0 | and questions over whether the system was fit for purpose. |
| 0:49.0 | And dissenting voices continue to contact us with serious accusations of bigger failures in the international Paralympic system. |
| 1:00.0 | I'm Simon Cox and in this edition of assignment on the BBC World Service |
| 1:04.8 | we'll be exploring allegations of athletes deliberately faking symptoms |
| 1:09.4 | in order to improve their chances of winning. Surely that can't be true can it? |
| 1:19.6 | Okay so it's afternoon we're going to warm up, 5300. |
| 1:24.0 | We need to make sure that you're working on your skills off the walls, okay? |
| 1:29.0 | So good underwaters. |
| 1:31.0 | Swimming has dominated Simon Watkins life, first as a coach in Wales where his |
| 1:36.4 | athletes won Commonwealth and Olympic medals before he moved to Australia, where |
| 1:41.5 | he's been just as successful with disabled swimmers. |
... |
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