Sport and Disabilities-Blog Entry #6

In class Thursday, we talked about disabilities in sports. I don’t know of any athletes personally who are disabled, but I did watch Oscar Pistorius who ran in the London 2012 Olympics this past summer. I would think that one of Pistoruis’s greatest achievements in life would be running at the London 2012 Olympics. It just sucks that there was so much negativity surrounding the situation. Over the years of running at the collegiate level I have witnessed people who ran with prosthetics legs. Also, in high school I ran against a girl who was deaf, but I didn’t realize it until after I had won the event (200 dash). I gave her a hand shake and congratulated her for making it this far, because she was a really good sprinter and did an awesome job. Some stereotypes that I came up with about people with disabilities were outcast, clowns, victim and people incapable of full participation in everyday life. I believe that people with disabilities did not grow up having a disability, they just have different shoes. Anybody can do anything they want to as long as they put their heart and mind into it, disability or no disability. If I had a disability, I don’t know if I would have made it this far. I would have to have a lot of support from my family and friends to help motivate me to keep going and never stop. If I had a disability I don’t think I would be that much involved in sports, because my parents weren’t involved in sports. The only way for me to be involved in sports, would be from my twin sister, because she also runs track here at BGSU and I believe that she would be a great inspiration to me.  When it comes to disability and gender in sport, I think it doesn’t matter, but at the same time I do think it matters. I believe that men are always going to be stronger than women, so that’s where I think gender does matter, but then at the same time I think that if you have a disability, it will be the neutral across the board.  

Alicia Jefferson