Comments | sunnydale47: How do you feel about this?

sunnydale47

How do you feel about this?

Mar 16, 2006 01:10

A girl on her high school track team who uses a wheelchair is seeking a federal court order that would let her take part in the same races as her fellow students. She's allowed to be in the team's practices, but the school system requires her to participate in separate races during official events. Since she's generally the only one at the meets in ( Read more... )

questions, disability, news

Comments 6

conuly March 16 2006, 06:19:28 UTC

I think the key part is that the kid doesn't intend to compete, just to participate. And no school lets every child participate. You get onto the team by doing better than everyone else trying out. You have to compete to earn your slot, which allows you to, well, compete.

No competition means no slot on the team. And yes, it *is* about winning.

sunnydale47 March 16 2006, 17:10:30 UTC

That's how I see it. It is about winning, which is why she wants to be timed separately. She has no hope of ever winning anything otherwise!

But if she just wants to be "on the track and on the bus with the teammates" than what's her problem? She's there on the track with them in practices, travels with them, changes in the locker room with them, and does everything with them except actually running the competitive races with them.

She seems to want to have it both ways -- being timed separately because she's disabled, but participating in the meets as if she's not disabled. I think she should have to choose to be treated one way or the other: if she wants to compete as a nondisabled person, and she can keep up, then fine. But if she wants the special privilege of being timed separately, then why shouldn't she have to "run" separately?

mactavish March 16 2006, 06:39:22 UTC

Is she in the way? Does she affect team times, or just her own? If she can't keep up, why is she on the team? If she can, why does it matter? I assume it's a manual chair.

In cases like, say, a blind baseball player, where there's team scoring, but different equipment would be involved, or for a 3'8" basketball player, I'd say let people try out for the team, and if they can compete, fine. If not, fine. But if the scores are individual, and she's not in the way, if the track team doesn't get hurt by her joining them, why not let her go at the same time?

sunnydale47 March 16 2006, 17:03:42 UTC

Yes, it's a manual chair. The Sun put up photos of Tatyana today. Oddly, one had a very neutral, appropriate caption: Tatyana McFadden filed a federal lawsuit to get the right to race alongside her teammates at Atholton High School." -- and the other had a very sympathetic caption: " McFadden loves the camaraderie of practicing and competing with teammates. She was embarrassed when Howard County officials told her she could race only against other wheelchair athletes ."

I've never seen a wheelchair like that, though. Have you? It looks more like a hand-operated tricycle than a wheelchair. Is that a standard racing wheelchair? I've seen the sports chairs with the wheels sloping in at the top (but what I've mostly seen is wheelchair basketball). I've never seen a chopped wheelchair before!

annerism March 16 2006, 16:42:47 UTC

As a former high school track 'star', here's my take ( ... )

sunnydale47 March 16 2006, 17:29:29 UTC

Thanks so much for your insightful comment, deidei! One thing neither I nor the others who responded thought about was the issue of the wheelchair being in the way on the track. I can see where the runners would be handicapped by having to go around it on every lap, and it would slow the competitors' overall times considerably.

The chair looks quite bulky (see my reply above to mactavish for links to the photos) and appears to barely fit into the lane -- if the lanes are standard width, it looks like the chair was made to ride right on the lines on both sides, which means inevitably that she's going to wobble into the adjacent lanes at times in the heat of competition. But are runners supposed to stay in their lane? I thought that's where they start out but once they get going they can move in toward the middle if they can (?). If that's true, I can just picture a knot of runners coming up behind the chair and having to split to go around it. Since nobody would know which direction any given runner was going to go, I can imagine collisions, ( ... )