antiquity
07-25-2002, 03:07 PM
July 25, 2002
Inspired revolution is not just politically correct
by simon barnes
REVOLUTION, no less. Sporting revolution in the safe-as-houses domain of the Commonwealth Games, which start in Manchester today.
For the place is full of disabled athletes, and note this: the expression, from today onwards, can no longer be considered an oxymoron.
For the disabled athletes are taking part in the Commonwealth Games, not the Crippled-Games-we-had-to-tag-on-for-the-sake-of-political-correctness Games.
The disabled athletes will win not jolly-good-for-a-cripple medals but Commonwealth Games medals.
That means that a medal won by a bloke who can hop a good bit on the one leg that remains to him will count just the same as a gold medal won by Jonathan Edwards, the triple jumper with the best pair of leapers on the planet.
And it is a decision that turns sport upside down: reversing the traditional
view of what sport is about.
Instead of people trying to be the best in the world, an option open to comparatively few of us, there will be many who are trying to do the best they can under rather trying circumstances.
A fair few more of us can empathise with that one. A number of traditionalists will find this difficult to deal with.
Sport is supposed to be the pursuit of excellence: ruthlessness is at the very heart of sport. Bunging compassion into the equation is confusing.
Next thing, they'll have special races for fat people, because they can't run as fast as fit people. And they'll have fights for boxers afflicted with cowardice, and lowboard diving for people with vertigo.
The Paralympic Games, the festival of disabled sport that follows the Olympics, has regularly been hit by scandals of people exaggerating or even faking a disability. Still, if you banned every able-bodied sport in which people cheated, we wouldn't be left with much.
The fact is that sport is changing before our eyes. Because of television and sport's ever-increasing audience, the world demands more than mere excellence.
We seek to be moved, lifted, and inspired. And this move brings us moving, lifting, inspiring tales by the bucket-load.
I have given a leg-up to a one-legged showjumper, ridden with a dressage rider with a twisted spine and taken a dressage test blindfold at a competition for the blind - the most terrifying thing I have ever done on a horse.
Today, as I set off on a four- day ride for the International Spinal Research Trust, I look forward to meeting Susanna Wade, who is paralysed and will ride with us side-saddle.
This sporting revolution is not political correctness gone mad. It is following the lead of Barnum: give the public what they want. Inspiration.
Inspired revolution is not just politically correct
by simon barnes
REVOLUTION, no less. Sporting revolution in the safe-as-houses domain of the Commonwealth Games, which start in Manchester today.
For the place is full of disabled athletes, and note this: the expression, from today onwards, can no longer be considered an oxymoron.
For the disabled athletes are taking part in the Commonwealth Games, not the Crippled-Games-we-had-to-tag-on-for-the-sake-of-political-correctness Games.
The disabled athletes will win not jolly-good-for-a-cripple medals but Commonwealth Games medals.
That means that a medal won by a bloke who can hop a good bit on the one leg that remains to him will count just the same as a gold medal won by Jonathan Edwards, the triple jumper with the best pair of leapers on the planet.
And it is a decision that turns sport upside down: reversing the traditional
view of what sport is about.
Instead of people trying to be the best in the world, an option open to comparatively few of us, there will be many who are trying to do the best they can under rather trying circumstances.
A fair few more of us can empathise with that one. A number of traditionalists will find this difficult to deal with.
Sport is supposed to be the pursuit of excellence: ruthlessness is at the very heart of sport. Bunging compassion into the equation is confusing.
Next thing, they'll have special races for fat people, because they can't run as fast as fit people. And they'll have fights for boxers afflicted with cowardice, and lowboard diving for people with vertigo.
The Paralympic Games, the festival of disabled sport that follows the Olympics, has regularly been hit by scandals of people exaggerating or even faking a disability. Still, if you banned every able-bodied sport in which people cheated, we wouldn't be left with much.
The fact is that sport is changing before our eyes. Because of television and sport's ever-increasing audience, the world demands more than mere excellence.
We seek to be moved, lifted, and inspired. And this move brings us moving, lifting, inspiring tales by the bucket-load.
I have given a leg-up to a one-legged showjumper, ridden with a dressage rider with a twisted spine and taken a dressage test blindfold at a competition for the blind - the most terrifying thing I have ever done on a horse.
Today, as I set off on a four- day ride for the International Spinal Research Trust, I look forward to meeting Susanna Wade, who is paralysed and will ride with us side-saddle.
This sporting revolution is not political correctness gone mad. It is following the lead of Barnum: give the public what they want. Inspiration.