“Horrible” is not a word you normally hear from an athlete who has just won a medal in a major race.
“I’m going to be completely honest,” Christie Raleigh Crossley said. “Today was absolutely horrible.”
The American swimmer expressed her displeasure shortly after winning silver in the 50-meter freestyle at the 2024 Paralympic Games, responding to criticism about the category in which she is competing.
Raleigh Crossley described what she described as “constant harassment that I have had to endure over the past two years, since I started para-swimming.”
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It is a central mechanism for fairness in para sport.
The classification system attempts to create a level playing field by grouping athletes with equal or similar disabilities, as determined by medical examination.
These subcategories can be obvious, separating people who wear prosthetics, use wheelchairs, or have a visual impairment. They can also be subtle, if not overlapping, based on the degree of disability an athlete has.
Raleigh Crossley, 37, competes in the S9 and S10 categories for swimmers with weakness, loss of coordination and other problems.
When she set a world record in a preliminary round of 50 meters on Thursday, social media exploded with accusations that she belonged in a different category. Her critics included other para swimmers.
“S9?” wrote Sarai Gascon Moreno from Spain. “Is it a joke?”
Veteran American para-swimmer Jessica Long seemed to agree, replying to Moreno: “I’m behind you.”
Raleigh Crossley was an NCAA All-American and Olympic contender in her youth. As a young woman, she suffered a series of injuries that left her with neck and back problems. She eventually required brain surgery that left her partially paralyzed.
In early 2022, the single mother of three returned to the pool and began training as a paraswimmer. She soon broke her first national record, winning gold in the 100m backstroke at the 2023 World Championships.
“Having all these bullies online saying that somehow I’m not as disabled as I look just because I can swim faster than them is pretty devastating,” she said. “I’m shaving my head tomorrow and you can see the scar and the dent if you want.”
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Raleigh Crossley read the latest criticism after she set the record on Thursday. In the final, a few hours later, she came second to Chen Yi of China, who improved the record by almost two-tenths of a second.
“I didn’t expect this at all,” Chen said. “I didn’t even think I would win gold.”
After meeting with officials to address the negative comments about her online, Raleigh Crossley remained determined. She is scheduled to race three more events in Paris.
“I really live it when I say I want to change the future of the Paralympic movement for the better,” she said. “I mean removing this toxic environment, removing this toxic behavior.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
