The Paralympic champion Richard Whitehead says too many disabled athletes are recognized for his or her time on truth TV presentations fairly than their exploits in recreation. Whitehead, a double gold medalist and global record-holder, is one in every of plenty of high-profile Paralympians to have seemed on a star display. He seemed on Celebrity Hunted whilst Ellie Simmonds was once on Strictly Come Dancing and Kadeena Cox has been on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here.
However, Whitehead says their carrying achievements are being forgotten and has known as for trade within the publicity a hit disabled athletes are getting.
The 46-year-old surged into the general public awareness after his enthralling dash from the again of the sphere to win the T42 200m name at London 2012, which he defended in Rio 4 years later. He is now fronting the brand new Disability Sports Alliance – a virtual platform designed to power consciousness of incapacity recreation – after analysis discovered 67% of UK adults had been not able to call a aggressive or retired disabled athlete.
“It’s astonishing that people associate the athletes with other media opportunities and not their own specialty,” he mentioned. “You want to be remembered as an athlete, you want to represent professionalism, you want to represent more than just the sport, but also you want to be identified through the successes that you’ve had, and then transcend to other areas as well .
“It’s about celebrating those successes and understanding that Paralympic athletes have so many barriers and obstacles to overcome, where we’re just getting on the field of play, and then being successful. To have all these barriers and obstacles after you’ve been successful is really frustrating.”
While the exposure is there for the highest-profile athletes in the entertainment genre, Whitehead has called out the lack of disability sport being shown on TV and the personal stories that are being missed out on because of that. “The channels are just gobbled up by these mainstream able-bodied sports, whether it’s cricket, whether it’s football, and disability sports take a backseat,” he mentioned.
“The storytelling is really part of that. When you look at the Olympic athletes that you associate with success there’s always a really great story. Jess Ennis, Mo. [Farah], they have really great stories and we want to start to give those elite Paralympic athletes, elite disabled athletes, those opportunities to have the story out there. I’m sure it resonates with a lot of the public’s obstacles and challenges they’re having to overcome.
“My message is that we deserve this opportunity through the success we’ve had. There’s been so many things that have been lost within success, but now it’s time for social change.
“Now it’s time to hold people accountable. When organizations and the media say they have an inclusive strategy around disability sport, it’s time to hold people to account for that.”