The Paralympics: Inclusivity Through Global Sport
Were you one of the billions of people who watched this year’s Paralympics Games? After the Olympics and the World Cup, the Paralympics is the third most watched sporting event in the world. Held approximately 2-3 weeks after each Summer and Winter Olympics, the Paralympics is a sporting event for athletes of differing abilities, including physical, visual, and intellectual impairments. In this issue, our English editor, Rachel Tait, discusses her family’s experience with the Paralympics and interviews her 9-year-old son to get his impression of the Games.
Peyk
I’ve always loved the Olympics. One of my earliest life memories is seeing the Olympic torch come through San Diego on its way to the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. I’ve taken tours of the Olympic training center in Chula Vista and have visited numerous former Olympic venues across the globe. (Fun fact: The view from the top of the terrifying ski jump in Innsbruck, Austria? A cemetery. Yikes!) Every two years, I watch as much as I can. Swimming? Definitely. The 100-meter dash? Wouldn’t miss it. Bobsledding? Of course. Snowboard cross. Sure, why not?
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that, despite my love of all things Olympics, I’ve never really paid much attention to the Paralympics. This year, however, with the beautiful backdrop of Paris and expanded network coverage, my family got into the spirit. We found videos of previous Paralympic races to get us pumped up. We consumed NBC’s preview show, marveling at a swimmer who lost her leg to a shark attack just last year, but who was already competing at her first Paralympics. We intently watched, paused, discussed, restarted, and rewatched explanatory videos before each Paralympic sport: wheelchair tennis, blind soccer, para-triathlon, goalball, para-track and field… the list goes on and on.
Our son, Cyrus, exclaimed how he wanted to play these new-to-us, very fun-looking sports: “I wish I could play wheelchair rugby, that looks like bumper cars!”
My husband got in on the action, too, noting the incredible record of the Iranian “sitting volleyball” Paralympic team. Beginning with the Paralympics in Seoul in 1988, the team has won an astounding eight of the ten times it has participated, including Paris 2024. Star player Morteza Mehrzad—the second-tallest man in the world who, at 8’1,” has a form of acromegaly (gigantism), which can and has caused him numerous health conditions—refused to leave his home in Chalus, Iran, for over a decade, worried about others’ reactions to him. But Cyrus just thought Mehrzad was so cool—very tall (even while sitting) and very good at smashing the ball across the net.
We also watched Californian Ezra Frech, son of Iranian-born actress Bahar Soomekh, compete in his second Paralympics; he just killed it in both the T63 high jump and the T63 100-meter race. Cyrus sat, mouth agape, as Ezra told interviewers all he has overcome in his 19 years to achieve such incredible results.
I asked Cyrus for his take on this year’s Paralympics:
What did you think of the Olympics and Paralympics this summer?
I thought they were a pretty good time and amazing scenery to watch. They’re probably my favorite sporting events. It was so cool how thousands of people came from places all over the world to compete and the really big crowds were awesome. It was special to even be able to watch the Olympics and the Paralympics this year. I can’t wait for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics!
What did you notice that was different about the Paralympics than the Olympics?
One thing the Paralympics has that the Olympics doesn’t have is that it is interesting to learn what cool contraptions the athletes use, so the competitors can play. For example, if they didn’t have working legs or any legs at all, they could use a long wheelchair-looking thing to race. I liked the wheelchair racing and wheelchair basketball because it was like the athletes got to use their own vehicles!
Which Olympic and Paralympic sports were you most excited about?
Sports I liked in both the Olympics and Paralympics were swimming, basketball, bicycling, volleyball, and track. My favorite events were the track racing events, especially the long-distance ones because short races are kind of boring, but in long races there is more time to watch and they’re more exciting (at least for me). I usually rooted for the U.S. or Iran in the sports, but I liked watching all the teams. It was also cool watching the Iranians win the sitting volleyball match in the Paralympics! Can we go watch that at the next Paralympics in Los Angeles!? I really want to go!
