Advertisement & the Portrayal of Paralympians

The Olympic Games are international multi-events that have become a household name. However, the Paralympic Games are not as well known. When asking college students to talk about the Paralympic Games and its athletes, it was nearly impossible. On the other hand, when asked to name an Olympian, the first name that always comes to mind is Michael Phelps. Being that both of these games are huge milestones, all athletes deserve to be recognized.

Especially now, shortly before the Paralympic Games should begin taking place, I have yet to see any advertisements or commercials regarding the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games. However, what has been advertised is the Olympics. Being that the Olympics take place before the Paralympics, this is understandable, but there is not one advertisement that I can recall from any previous years of the Paralympic Games. Especially since most people do not even know what the Paralympics are, its athletes, or the events that take place, it is important that we start representing the disabled community appropriately. This begins with more news coverage, ads on social media, and televised commercials. In the previous Paralympic media coverage, it always seems to represent a heroic or inspirational theme. When viewing the Olympic media coverage, we typically do not feel like this, so why should it be any different?

Having a disability should not hold you back. When people keep telling you, you can't do something, it makes you want to do it that much more, hence the "Yes I can" phrase that takes places in the Rio 2016 trailer. This included scenes of people with disabilities participating in all types of sports, dance, track, basketball, fencing, gymnastics, etc. I feel that this was a good representation of the Paralympics, but I feel like the disabled community is still trying to prove that they can do things just as great as able-bodied people. By including more media coverage that is similar to the Olympics media coverage, and their elite training, I feel we could stop pitying Paralympians. If only society was aware and understanding towards people with disabilities overall, they would then be able to eliminate any feelings of "helplessness" towards them. This is something that I feel towards the disabled community overall, not just in the Paralympics. If what is portrayed in the media is falsified, then this allows for the viewers to not be knowledgeable on the topic of disabilities overall. Along with proper advertisements that are needed to promote the Paralympics, there needs to be more airtime on TV as well. If the games take place for 100s of hours, there needs to be more than just 10 hours aired on television. Once people can see that persons with disabilities are truly no different than able-bodied people, I think there could be a greater respect and understanding towards the disabled community and Paralympians. 

With the lack of people with disabilities being promoted on TV or social media, there are not many people for the disabled community to look up to. If people with disabilities are not seeing that there are people like them competing in these games, they may never think that they could play a sport or eventually become a Paralympic athlete. There is no "overcoming" your disability, because you are simply just an athlete participating in a sport you love while performing to the best of your ability. When portraying these athletes in media coverage, we need to start showcasing them as the person they are before we see their disability. 

Pictures:

https://onherturf.nbcsports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2021/11/GettyImages-932960306-e1637694578488.jpg?w=1021

https://www.paralympic.org/sites/default/files/2022-01/logo-RC2.png

References:

Brittain, I. (2010). The Paralympic Games Explained. New York, NY: Routledge.