Paralympic Cheating Recap

September 18th, 2008 filed in Olympics, Recap

The Paralympic Games in Beijing are now over, so just as we did for the Olympics, we would like to take a look back at cheating during these games. We have already told you about the Paralympic Doping Scandals, but there are other forms of cheating that were on the minds of athletes at these games. The Times Online has done such a good job summarizing the story, that we thought we would share an excerpt from their article with you:

There were four athletes sent home from these games and banned for failing doping tests, three from the IPC tests in powerlifting and one German wheelchair basketball player, from a test at home before the Games.

But far more significantly were the classification statistics. The Times has been told that during the course of the Games there were 99 functional reclassifications, 63 visual impairment reclassifications and 13 athletes reclassified again after their first appearance in front of the classifies. Of those there were at least two declassifications. Rebecca Chin, the 16-year-old British discus thrower, finished second in a competition in which she was being called a cheat by fellow competitors, only to be then thrown out of the Games.

The British team said she had come with what they thought was a lower leg disability, had been told by classifiers that she had cerebral palsy, and then finally that it was too mild for her to be a Paralympian. That fate had earlier befallen Derek Malone, the Irish 7-a-side cerebral palsy football player, in competition that was brought into disrepute by accusations of cheating.

Classification is to the Paralympics what doping is to the Olympics and with money coming into Paralympic sport, cheating will become ever more attractive.

‘Boosting’, the dangerous practice of causing a surge in adrenalin in the body by creating trauma in the non-functioning parts of disabled athletes’ bodies with pins, nails, catheters or ball-bearings in the right place, seems to be less common now. But pre-competition techniques to beat physical and neurological classification tests are rife if you believe some athletes. The desire is to make yourself seem more disabled and thus ensure that you are put in an easier class. In that sense ‘bounding’ may be the new ‘boosting’ and the Times has been told that cerebral palsy athletes jumping up and down for an hour before their tests, so as to appear less stable and symmetrical, is one technique used.

The Telegraph also has a story up which includes more details about these forms of cheating :

Boosting was a major issue in the Eighties and Nineties, and so the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) brought in tests on ‘Health and Safety’ grounds, to check for athletes deliberately ‘boosting’, or what is known medically as ‘autonomic dysreflexia’.

It can occur naturally, so it is a delicate issue. Athletes have pegged their catheters to keep their bladders full to create a backflow to the kidneys and create stress on the body, which can create an injection of power through the body. Other athletes are believed to have experimented by putting tacks in uncomfortable places, or breaking bones, or strapping themselves in too tight, where they have no sensation, to create the same effect – a shock to the system. They say it can increase performance by 25 percent, but it can also kill you through a stroke.

The author also goes on to give an example of cheating from when he competed :

Cheating in Paralympic sport is a sign that athletes are prepared to go to huge lengths to get on the podium. One thing I never did, when I was racing, was to let my chair out my sight. I have known cases where athletes have felt that their compensators, the device on our racing chairs which we calibrate ourselves to help us steer around the bends on the track, have been tampered with. For that reason, I always closely guarded my chair whenever I was in competition.

And the BBC has this to add :

In these games, there were a number of examples of people being thrown out of events because they were felt to be less disabled than their classification allowed. Clearly, if there is a blatant example of cheating, it must be dealt with. But the answer to that is not expulsion during the games, but a proper, independent and transparent programme of classification before the games ever begin. If a competitor performs above the level which appears to be consistent with their disability, it should be dealt with after the games. We cannot have a situation where doing particularly well, is regarded as a reason for re-classification within the games.

Apparently there is an entire world out there that most of us don’t even know about. Some of the forms of cheating described above are certainly disturbing. As you can see the link has been made between money and cheating. Even the Paralympics are not immune to cheating scandals, and as funding is increased for these events, we can only expect cheating to increase in the future. However not all instances are clear cut. If the system improperly classifies an athlete, should they really be labeled cheater?