With the 2024 Paralympic Games getting underway earlier this week, Mirror Sport delves into the cheating scandals that threatened to mar the legitimacy of the competition
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The Paralympic Games is all about the championing athletes who suffer from a range of disabilities.
Having been created in 1948, it’s continued to grow into one of the largest international sporting events with the 17th summer edition of the competition being hosted in Paris this month.
Despite the global popularity of the Games, it hasn’t been immune to controversy with notable cheating scandals threatening to blemish the Paralympics.
With over a week left to go in Paris, Mirror Sport take a deep delve into the scandals in years previous that saw particular teams and individuals fall into disrepute.
Spanish basketball controversy
Without doubt the biggest scandal to hit the Paralympics in their history, Spain’s intellectual disability basketball team earned a gold medal at the Sydney Games in 2000 to much fanfare.
The celebrations came to an abrupt halt when it emerged that only two out of the squad of 12 players genuinely had a disability which resulted in an indiscriminate ban on athletes who did have an intellectual disability from the 2004 and 2008 Paralympics.
The cheating that was allegedly masterminded by Fernando Martin Vicente, then president of the Spanish Sports Federation for People with Intellectual Disability (Feddi) and vice-president of the Spanish Paralympic Committee, destroyed the careers of thousands of athletes across the globe.
Vicente – who was found to have recruited talented young non-disabled basketball players – accepted responsibility for the fraud and was fined £4,600 (€5,400) despite later denying any involvement.
Tanni-Grey Thompson misrepresentation concern
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Reach PLC)
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Ranking as one of the most successful Paralympians of all-time, former wheelchair racer Tanni Grey-Thompson earned 16 medals (11 gold, four silver and a bronze) across five Games.
Alongside swimmer Jessica Long, the Brit raised concerns of athlete cheating in 2016 by misrepresenting their classifications. Intentionally misrepresenting your disability could potentially provide an athlete with a competitive advantage, however, Grey-Thompson’s concerns were ignored by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) who defended their classification system as ‘robust’ in 2017.
Grey-Thompson – who is now a TV presenter – was ultimately proved right when discus thrower Vinod Kumar was was banned for two years after being found to have intentionally misrepresent his abilities during the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The Indian athlete was observed performing several movements and functions during the discus which were adjudged to not be consistent with his performance during the physical and technical aspects of classification.
Paralympic champion’s drug scandal
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Retired Nordic skier Thomas Oelsner earned recognition during the 1994 Winter Paralympics when he won three gold medals and two silvers. The German followed up his heroics with two golds in the 1998 Games.
Oelsner – who was injured in a 1991 motorcycle accident which left him with a paralysed left arm – tarnished his legacy during the 2002 Games where he won two gold medals after becoming the first person to fail a drugs test at the Winter Paralympic Games, despite vehemently protesting his innocence.
The former skier was stripped of his medals and subsequently sent home in disgrace as he was handed a six-month national ban. Following the completion of his ban, he returned to competitive skiing and participated in the 2006 and 2010 Games but failed to add to his medal tally.
