Former athletes and officials tell Four Corners the system of Paralympic classification is flawed and easily manipulated.
abc.net.au/news/paralympic-games-classification-system-exploited-australian/102165924Paralympic athletes are deliberately exaggerating their impairments in a bid to win medals, a Four Corners investigation has found.Paralympic classes are meant to give athletes with different impairments a level playing fieldThere are calls for a new body to enforce the rules
Crucial to the competition is a classification system that is meant to level the playing field for athletes with different impairments. One concluded that, "the system does not work", another said there were "no repercussions for those who cheat".Mr Gonzalez said cases of athletes cheating during classification posed a clear threat to the Paralympic brand and a lack of resources made it difficult to address the problem.Stuart Jones represented Australia in cycling at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympic Games and world championship events in the trike class.
His then partner, Sandy Kryzius, said Jones had told her he believed he could win more easily in the three-wheel para-cycling class. "Stuart was a very strong rider," Short said. "You have to be able to lay the bike into the corners. You have to be able to get out of the saddle and sprint which, if you have an issue with balance, getting out of the saddle can be problematic."National cycling body, AusCycling said it was not aware that Jones had raced on a two-wheeled bike in the years after his accident."I said, 'Are you OK? You're limping'.
Paralympians and officials make impassioned pleas for fundamental reforms to the Games, tonight on Four Corners on ABC TV andDuring classification, Paralympians are assessed and divided into classes based on how their impairment affects their performance. "The level of misrepresentation that started to take place after 2009 was quite mind-blowing in some sports and particularly … swimming," Ms Buckley said.Speaking about this issue publicly for the first time, Ms Buckley said that, for certain classes, misrepresentation had become "almost like an inside joke" within the Paralympic movement.
"It is very easy to exaggerate in a classification," four-time Paralympic gold medallist Maddison Elliott said."There are people who are just doing it because they're not winning in their classification, they want to compete in a classification that they can win in," Elliott said.
Athletics Australia said it was not aware of any cases, either current or historical, of athletes, coaches or staff involved in any classification misconduct. By 2016, Fowler changed her name to Amanda Reid. She no longer used a white cane, and was classed as a physically impaired swimmer with cerebral palsy."My worry is that this completely devalues the classification system … and makes the country a joke in the international scene," he wrote.Reid changed sport again, and won gold at the Tokyo Games as a physically impaired cyclist with cerebral palsy.
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