Why, as the father of a 無能にするd child, I dread the Paralympics: Hollywood-style narratives are far 除去するd from the reality of life with a disability

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British Paralympian Jonnie Peacock: Ross Clark 会談 about how he struggles to watch the Paralympics when he understands the reality of having a child with a disability

手渡す on heart, I have tried hard to like the Paralympics. Four years ago, I watched the 開会式 in London just as I had the 開会式 of the Olympics weeks earlier. I tried to watch a bit every day.

But the ぎこちない truth is that, contrary to the public mood that 勝つ／広く一帯に広がるd throughout the event, I struggled to enjoy it.

Now, five days into this year’s games and with at least 20 gold メダルs racked up by Team GB so far, I still find it hard to join in the 祝賀s.

It isn’t that I don’t admire the 抱擁する 成果／努力s that individuals put into their sports nor that I find myself 混乱させるd by the endless 分類s under which the 競技者s compete.

What I struggle with is the image of disability which is 現在のd.

The Paralympics is just so far 除去するd from the experiences of most of us who, every day, を取り引きする 親族s with disability that I have begun to dread the whole event.

The message 現在のd by the Paralympics is that anyone can 打ち勝つ disability, that the 無（不）能 to do things lies only in the mind. It is, of course, superficially an attractive idea.

Behind every メダル lies a Hollywood-style ‘narrative’ ― an uplifting story about someone who once thought they couldn’t do something, yet through sheer courage and 成果／努力 overcame their 疑問s to 達成する something.

In many 事例／患者s, they 成し遂げる at a level that most able-団体／死体d people could not do, or at least not without putting the same 成果／努力 into training.

However, what people tend to forget when they are watching the Paralympics is that they are 観察するing only the extreme upper end of disability spectrum: people who are 純粋に 肉体的に 無能にするd and those with very 穏やかな learning disabilities.

Beyond them is a 抱擁する 全住民 who will never get anywhere 近づく competing in the Paralympics because they are unable to run, jump, swim or throw, or, if they can, they will never be able to compete in any meaningful sense.

広大な／多数の／重要な Britain's Jon-Allan Butterworth, Jody Cundy and Louis Rolfe celebrate with their gold メダルs after winning the Mixed C1-5 750m Team Sprint Final during the fourth day of the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

One of them is my daughter, Eliza, who is 19 and has 厳しい learning disabilities. She also has 穏やかな physical disabilities. (Her feet have not formed proper arches and are not 平行の to each other.)

This gives her a slow, 板材ing gait, but does not stop her walking or running.

いつかs she surprises me with her physical 業績／成就. One of my proudest days was getting her up a 4,000 ft mountain in Scotland in an eight-hour マラソン.

My hobby is climbing mountains ― it hadn’t occurred to me before then that it was something we could enjoy doing together, albeit at a ４半期/4分の1 of my no rmal pace and only on days when she is in a 静める mood.

She can swim, too ― better than I can, in one sense, because, unlike me, she isn’t 脅すd of putting her 長，率いる under water.

Eliza can kick a ball, wave a croquet mallet, swing a ゴルフ club. Any sport that she sees others doing she will sooner or later 需要・要求する to have a go at herself.

Yet Eliza will never compete at sport because she 簡単に does not understand the 競争の激しい nature of it. One of her favourite sports ― which hasn’t やめる made it to the Paralympics ― is arm-格闘するing.

She isn’t bad at it, having strong 武器. And on the 直面する of it, she seems to 扱う／治療する it 本気で. She will often 宣言する with delight: ‘I won!’

Trouble is, she will say ‘I won’ 関わりなく whether she has really won. She will say it even before she has begun. She is just going through the 動議s. It is a ritual she has learned and which she loves to repeat. In no proper sense is she taking part in a 競争の激しい sport.

It is the same with running. She loves to 参加する the village sports day, yet that isn’t the same as competing.

When the starting ピストル is 解雇する／砲火／射撃d, she will just stand where she is.

Then, half a minute later, after some 激励, she will run. But she will be oblivious to the fact that others are trying to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 each other by crossing the line first.

Ross Clark's daughter, Eliza Clark (権利) at the 2012 London Olympics

Neither does she really understand what is going on when she watches sport. In 2012, she was taken for a day to watch the Paralympics as part of a group of children and adults with learning disabilities. When she returned in the evening, I asked what she had seen and what she had enjoyed.

Her first answer was ‘train’. When 圧力（をかける）d その上の, she について言及するd her 旅行 in a carer’s car on the way to the 駅／配置する.< /font>

Only a few weeks later did my wife and I learn what sport she had watched when she reached London.

We even saw a lovely photo of her 提起する／ポーズをとるing with the Brazilian boccia team (it is a sport 類似の to bowls for 無能にするd people) ― into which, with her yellow T-shirt, she 合併するd やめる 自然に. She had enjoyed a 広大な／多数の／重要な day out, but the sport itself had to her been an 理解できない spectacle.

I am afraid to say that other than photo-爆破 a boccia team, there is no room for people like my daughter in the Paralympics.

Eliza may seem to espouse the 初めの Olympic ideal that it is the taking part, not the winning, that counts.

広大な／多数の／重要な Britain's Ellie Robinson with her Gold メダル during the メダル 儀式 for the Women's 50m バタフライ S6 at the Olympics Aquatics Stadium

But that is not always the 事例／患者 in the Paralympics.

My がまんするing image of the 2012 Paralympics is of British cyclist Jody Cundy throwing away his water 瓶／封じ込める and shouting expletives at the 裁判官s after he was disqualified for a 誤った start.

His behaviour was disgraceful, and he later had to apologise to the （人が）群がる.

Yet many commentators put a 肯定的な 解釈／通訳 on what he had done, arguing it 論証するd that the Paralympians could be just as 競争の激しい, just as 熱烈な, as their able-団体／死体d 相当するものs in the Olympics.

明白に, the fact that people such as Eliza will never be able to compete at sport doesn’t mean that others with milder disabilities shouldn’t take part or that the Paralympics shouldn’t 存在する. But what does irritate me is the inference that what you will see over the next few days is somehow 代表者／国会議員 of people with disabilities and that anyone could 結局最後にはーなる on the podium at Rio if only they put in the 成果／努力 and have the self-belief.

They couldn’t. And neither, in many 事例／患者s, will they even be 奮起させるd by the Paralympics ― for the simple 推論する／理由 that they will be unable to understand what it is all about.

For them, Britain’s 保証（人）d armful of メダルs ― as impressive as the 業績／成就s are ― will mean nothing because they do not really 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がる the difference between winning and losing.

The truth is that there 存在するs a 抱擁する 湾 in the Paralympics between people who have straightforward physical disabilities, such as an amputated 四肢, and those who have learning disabilities.

'As a nation, we gloat over our 運ぶ／漁獲高 of gold メダルs, 扱う／治療するing them as a 勝利 of hope over adversity -but at the same time we forget what life is really like for most 無能にするd people and their families'

The former group will compete with all the tenacity as if they were in the Olympics.

However, events for those with learning disabilities will form a more subdued part of the games.

Yet somehow, we have 許すd to develop the impression that Paralympians are 代表者／国会議員 of all people with disabilities.

As a nation, we gloat over our 運ぶ／漁獲高 of gold メダルs, 扱う／治療するing them as a 勝利 of hope over adversity. But at the same time we forget what life is really like for most 無能にするd people and their families.

For many of us, the biggest challenge during the Paralympics will not be about thinking how our loved ones might run the 100 metres in the fastest time possible.

It will be controlling temper tantrums, getting the bathroom 決まりきった仕事 完全にするd in under an hour and a half, 説得するing a 混乱させるd and 苦しめるd person that they really can’t 嘘（をつく） on the 床に打ち倒す in the middle of a shop.

I don’t want to detract from the 業績／成就s of Paralympians and I hope people enjoy watching the games. But please don’t think that what you are watching is an example all 無能にするd people can follow.?