Paralympics - Tried, but not always True: Part 2

It's True, they're False! Fame to Shame: At least they were, as it turns out. The Spanish basketball team from the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, that was supposed to be composed entirely of intellectually challenged individuals was anything but, instead turned out to be more morally challenged, as a team member who apparently had a conscience informed the press and officials that the team were a bunch of posers...turns out that only a few of the gold medal team qualified as truly disabled, which eventuated in the team returning the medals, the sport being eliminated from further Paralympics, and this category of disability was also temporarily held out, but eventually let back in with a great deal of advocacy. "Shame on You!" translated across all languages... 

Faking Bad, Secondary Gain: Why, do you ask, would anyone other than those lacking a conscience like the foregoing group, fake having a disability? Sometimes referred to as "malingerers". This type of 'faking bad' and/or exaggeration of physical symptoms may be found when evaluating individuals who have indicated they were "incapable" of performing a type of work, task, school, etc. Frequently tough to disprove and may take a while to 'flush out' the truth. There are also cases across all types settings where a competitor, in an attempt to gain an advantage, will either fake or indulge their own disadvantage or shortcoming (including a documented injury). But hardly anyone I have come across would choose a disability over an able minded/able bodied condition, at least not those who are otherwise in sound mental health themselves.

(Un)usual fare of unfairing: In addition to those more common methods of cheating to get ahead of the competition in the traditional Olympics (doping, steroids, etc.), we come to discover some that are only unique to certain categories of Paralympians...such as those with spinal chord injuries, where it has been discovered, uncovered, that a few have engaged in deliberate self-harm to a limb/extremity, thereby increasing blood pressure and in turn boost performance as much as 15%...not only potentially lethal, it's, of course, a violation of both the spirit and strict rules of these Games.

Found out, called out - held to account: One of the most profound lessons in accountability occurred relatively early in my career, with a Special Olympian. A boy who 'qualified' as such due to his early diagnosis of Muscular Dystrophy. Despite being an 'only child' and his diagnosis (and the typical stereotype of parents spoiling such children), it was the conviction of Christopher's parents that he be held to  a high moral standard. A measure of which was realized by me when I discovered that this ten-year-old was scheduled to see me for "anger management", following an incident of ramming another student with his wheel chair, which eventuated in a one day suspension, which his parents actively supported (which was no doubt in retrospect due in no small measure to his resentment of his condition and envy of those able bodied peers surrounding him each day). Resentment which quickly gave way to a type of courage and grace, the source and combination of which continued to be a mystery to me as I continued to have a privilege to experience as we met throughout this young man's formative years, until a secondary condition took his life at the tender age of  nineteen, after he had finished a semester of college, all the while being keenly aware of his deteriorating condition. And after which I had the highest honor in my career ever since, a request from his parents to be a eulogist.  

Coming: Cross training Para/Olympians, a categorical success.