Paralympic Swimmer Wins Gold And Silver After Online Attacks About Disability | EUROtoday

US Paralympic swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley has added two extra medals to their Paris tally.

The first-time Paralympian gained the gold medal on Tuesday within the 100-meter backstroke S9, breaking the Paralympic file with a time of 1:07.02. On Wednesday, she swam to silver within the ladies's 100-meter freestyle S9. (Raleigh Crossley makes use of the pronouns she and they.)

Last week, the American swimmer set a world file after which gained a silver medal within the 50-meter freestyle S9 race on the identical day. But her second was tainted by on-line commentators, together with different athletes, who questioned her incapacity as a result of it's not as seen as others.

“People tell me I don't 'look disabled,' but I'm a Paralympian — and I'm going for gold,” Raleigh Crossley mentioned afterwards in an as-told-to story printed on Today.com.

And she's not accomplished but, with extra occasions nonetheless on her competitors schedule.

“I just escaped,” Raleigh Crossley, a mother of three, mentioned of the harassment, in accordance with The Washington Post. “Thank God I have my kids here. I went into that mode. I immersed myself outside of Team USA. I took a step away from Team USA para swimming all together.

“Just reaching out to the people who do care about me has been important,” she added.

Since final week, she's acquired an outpouring of messages of help on social media, together with many from different para athletes.

The 37-year-old, a former faculty swimmer, was hit by a drunk driver in 2007, leaving them with spinal points. They have been hit by a automobile as a pedestrian the next yr and suffered mind accidents. A decade later, one other accident led to the invention of a tumor of their mind. They have paralysis on the left facet of their physique because of these incidents, and compete within the S9 class in opposition to athletes with related impairments.

Raleigh Crossley hopes to be an instance for athletes with less-visible disabilities.

“I want to show that Paralympians are more than athletes who are missing limbs,” they informed Today.com. “We are not just people in wheelchairs. We are not all blind. There is a spectrum of what makes someone eligible and there are many athletes who are missing out because they just don't know. I want to help kids, the next generation of Paralympians, to embrace their sport.”