- By Dan Roan
- ` sports editor
5 hours ago
image source, Getty Images
image description,
Tully Kearney won S5 gold in the 100m freestyle at the Tokyo Paralympics
Great Britain's Paralympic gold medalist Tully Kearney has lodged a formal complaint with World Para Swimming, claiming she was subjected to a grading process that was “conducted in an inappropriate, offensive, sometimes degrading and arguably discriminatory manner”.
The 26-year-old swimmer wrote to the world governing body, claiming the “appalling and unacceptable treatment” towards her had “nearly broken me”.
Kearney – a 10-time world champion – says the panel that judged her “failed to do their due diligence” and is seeking permission to appeal the decision.
She also claims that the classification team's findings “were irrational and unreasonable and showed a fundamental lack of knowledge and misunderstanding about my disability” and “ignored the supporting medical evidence.”
She told ` Sport that her classification had dashed her hopes of winning medals at this year's Paris Paralympics, as she was placed in a category with fewer impaired athletes than those she had previously competed against.
In response, World Para Swimming (WPS) told the `: “The details of an individual athlete's classification are confidential and World Para Swimming cannot comment on the classification of individual athletes.”
British Swimming said it had “fully supported and advised Tully as one of our world-class athletes throughout this process and will continue to do so”.
background
The classification system divides Paralympic athletes into groups based on their level of impairment to ensure fair competition.
Kearney was born with cerebral palsy and developed generalized dystonia, a progressive neurological movement disorder, in his mid-teens.
A multiple British, European and world record holder, she won gold in the 100m freestyle S5 and silver in the 200m freestyle S5 at the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics.
She was awarded an MBE in the 2022 New Year Honors.
Having been classified as S5 since 2018, Kearney told WPS that it was “unexpectedly” changed to S6 following a review in 2023, meaning that “I now have to compete against athletes who have a lot compared to myself have a lower degree of impairment”.
The Loughborough-based swimmer added: “As I have two neurological conditions, one stable and one progressive, it is irrational and unreasonable to conclude on my classification status that my disabilities have actually 'improved'. This is a medical impossibility…”
Kearney blamed the classification team's “incompetence” and said: “I'm just deeply disappointed and disappointed.” [WPS]…This is just so insensitive and hurtful to me on a personal level.”
The classification system has come under scrutiny in recent years. Five-time Paralympic champion Hannah Cockroft criticized “humiliating” tests in 2017 and feared there could be abuse. A new system was introduced in 2018.
Kearney explained how, following an initial assessment in Sheffield in March 2023, she had to wait “for around six hours with no communication” before being told that the classifiers were unable to make a decision and she would have to carry out a follow-up assessment. She claims no reason was given and she was told the documents would be forwarded to her after the event never occurred.
A second review took place four months later in Manchester, with Kearney claiming that “too many” additional 10 points had been added to her overall classification result.
She wrote: “[It] cannot be explained or justified by the subjective views of individual reviewers. This leads me to believe that my classification review lacked objectivity.
“The classification system itself has not changed between 2018 and 2023, so this cannot be a reason for the change in my classification.”
Kearney said she was presented with documents by the assessors claiming she was walking on crutches. She says that this has not been the case since 2016 and that she is now a wheelchair user.
“Not only was it an insensitive error, but it also indicates that the process that took place was inherently flawed,” she argued.
She also claims that one of the experts asked an officer to “pull me out of my wheelchair into a semi-standing position and then hold me face against the wall to prevent me from falling, and that this was described as ' “Walking was considered…” Not only was this clearly insensitive, degrading and downright humiliating for myself as an athlete and as a disabled person, but it also once again shows a fundamental misunderstanding of my disability…”
She wrote: “I simply do not feel that the volunteer classifiers, who may be medical professionals in any medical field or physical therapists, have the knowledge and expertise necessary to assess complex neurological conditions like mine, me and others like that puts impaired athletes in a difficult situation.” a very big disadvantage compared to our colleagues…”
“Incredible”
Kearney claims WPS and the classification team were informed that she was recovering from a concussion following an accident at the time of her review, but did not take this into account.
“To ask an athlete recovering from a known brain injury to wait this long… and then expect him to review very complex classification documents in just one hour is unbelievable,” she wrote.
“It was completely unfair to expect an athlete recovering from a brain injury to…make an informed decision about whether or not the information was accurate…I felt pressured to sign the forms, just so I could leave because I felt so sick.”
She has asked WPS to grant an appeal even though the two-week deadline to do so has expired.
“I have always supported the Paralympic movement and philosophy, but my treatment last year was arguably discriminatory by an organization that is supposed to empower disabled people,” she wrote.
“In the area of para sports we are given so few rights, e.g. B. the right to protest in person rather than through our national umbrella organization.”
Comments are closed.