'They deserve better': Addressing the discrepancies in Para sport coverage | The Ready Room

This meet was eye-opening in a lot of ways. There are still some discrepancies in the sport that as a fan that was watching, I was there at a Pampax with you, a pair of Pampax, I was able to consume it as a fan. And to me, it was glaringly clear, the differences. You were there for both, and I'm so grateful you were. It is so important to show up for these athletes at this level. You were at the pool deck, hearing athlete conversations, listening to fan and gate, all the things. Talk to me about what you witnessed at Parapanpax in comparison to Pampax. So, you know where I have been on this for years, about the Paralympic movement and how important coverage of Parasport is. I think here at CBC Sports, we have continued to do our best and we still have areas of improvement. And so going into the Parapanpax, that was a lens in which I approached this meeting. What is the organization gonna look like? What is the treatment of the athletes gonna look like? What is the media coverage gonna look like? The complete package, because to your point, at the Pampax, they rolled out the red carpet. It was sold out every single night. NBC was there on the pool deck. They used that as a trial run, as a chance to drum up excitement for LA 2028 Olympics. And so naturally, I assumed that was going to be the case at the Parapanpax because you're in California, not far from where the Paralympics are gonna take place. Let's use this as an opportunity to drum up excitement in the region for the Paralympics. And it didn't happen. It really didn't happen. It was devastating, quite honestly, outside of some influencers and some staff from the federations. I was the only journalist there covering it. I was the only reporter on deck doing interviews throughout the Parapanpax. We talked about it off the top of the show, the issues around the pool being too hot, the blocks being too hot, just the issues around the heat. And from my perspective, how unserious everybody was about these things being of concern. This was a trial run, in my opinion, for the LA 2028 Paralympics. And by all respects, it was a miss. It really was. It is heartbreaking to me. It, in a lot of ways, mirrored what I've seen at the last five consecutive Olympics and Paralympics spread. And that is, you have all the glitz and glam and all the sponsors and all the media and all the hoopla around the Olympics, and they end, and the lights get turned off, and you don't see that same intensity and intentionality and excitement around the Paralympics. And the athletes feel it. They're aware of it. And so, you know, to sort of take a page out of Fernando Liu's playbook, you can only control what you can control. And what I tried to do was, once again, put a spotlight on our great Paraswimmers at an international meet, as they represent our country in this complicated time in the world. They feel it. Everybody feels it. But we just have to be better. And collectively, we have to be better, because it is about the sponsors. It is about able-bodied athletes showing up and supporting Parasport. It's about media. It's about the framework around Paralympic committees as well supporting. So it was very disappointing, and it once again shows that despite the fact that the Para movement has made huge gains, there is still a lot more work to be done. Well, and when you spoke to Jocelyn Jay, she said that, like, you know, we've come a long way. We hear that all the time. We've come a long way, which is amazing. And we have come a long way. But I wanted to, you know, say this on the record. Like, please, athletes, hold us accountable. What more can we do? How can we continue to be that change? And sometimes it's not perfect. You mentioned it. I'm sitting in this chair. I was in Toronto last week. We only had so much budget. We did what we could with the event, acknowledging that 100%. But, but, it's one step in the right direction. So let's see how much farther we can push each other. And I truly think we're all the sum of our parts, right? Like, if I wanted to follow this with me, there was not a single live results page. I was watching every session live. There were some summaries, which were confusing to follow. And that's for somebody that lives in this sport and breathes it and tries their best to follow. You know how to navigate this. Right. If I'm an average fan, I couldn't have watched this competition at a grid level. And that's not acceptable to me. And I think moving forward, there are so many champions in the sport doing such incredible things. I did want to give a shout out to a couple Americans, Grace Newfer and Olivia Chambers, who have this podcast, Optical Delusions. They were on deck interviewing their teammates. Exactly. Which is amazing, but that was the only way their teammates were getting interviewed. This is my point. Like, that is maybe what was most shocking to me is we are literally in the host side of the Paralympics. Where is the apparatus to hype up the American para swimmers? It is. And Ali Truitt has this new performance fund that was giving their American swimmers, they were getting 10 grand for world record. Like change is happening, but how do we make change happen across the board? And I just think high performance is so crucial. I talked to Tessa Ratliff about this. She's like, I don't want you to be inspired that I woke up in the morning. Like, yada, yada, great. I want you to be inspired by something incredible. By a great swim. And you can only do that if your high performance environment is set up for you to do that. I want the pool to be of good temperature. You're telling me on day one, if the Pampax registered that same temperature. They're not swimming. You wouldn't have figured out something to do about it? Throw me in an ice bath. I don't know. And maybe I'm talking way off grid here, but I just, I think they deserve better in a high performance lens. They waited all year to get to compete at this level. I need the situation that they're surrounded by to set up for success. My last point on this is what was most heartbreaking to me when I expressed my dismay and disappointment about the conditions, about the organization, about the lack of coverage to a number of people around the facility throughout the Parapanpax. The overwhelming and common response I got was, welcome to Parasport. They've accepted that this is just, they've had to settle for mediocrity. Exactly. So let's change that. Absolutely. And anybody at home that is able to give us tangible things, we can do better. Please let me know. I'm constantly trying to evolve in this space as you are. You've been such a champion for Parasport. They are incredible athletes. That's it. That's the end of that sentence. I'm inspired by them. Support them. In many ways, support their high performance environment and support the next two years to get them to a really, really positive space by LA twice. Amen. Good on you for bringing it up. Awesome. Good on you for standing up for them.