For several years, Frenchwoman Marie Graftiaux has been a world champion in adapted para-swimming: 200m breaststroke, 100m and 200m butterfly, 400m medley, several relays… The 29-year-old swimmer will be present at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris (from 28 August to 8 September). But she will only appear there as a torchbearer and volunteer. Because for her, like for other athletes with Down syndrome, taking part in the Paralympic events remains more of a dream than a fight.
In practice, none of them manage to qualify and their performance remains inferior to that of other athletes with intellectual disabilities, today better described as “intellectual development disorders” or DID. This situation is linked to an excess of physical disability associated with Down syndrome, says the International Federation of Adaptive Sports.
For the affected athletes and their families, this discrimination is unacceptable: they want to benefit from a special Paralympic category, similar to that in force at the Virtus Global Games. In what is the world’s largest competition for high-level athletes with intellectual development disorders, they are divided into three classes: II1 (IDD), II2 (IDD associated with a physical or sensory disability), II3 (autism spectrum disorders).
At the Paralympic Games, there is only one category for athletes with intellectual disabilities, defined in particular by an IQ below 70-75. This is surprising, as the International Paralympic Committee has established numerous categories for physical and visual disabilities, depending on their nature and severity.
In addition, athletes with DID can only compete in three disciplines: athletics, swimming and table tennis. In Paris, only six French athletes will compete (three in athletics, one in swimming and two in table tennis). And around 150 from all nations, among 4,400 participating athletes, according to Marc Truffaut, president of the French Federation of Adapted Sports (FFSA).
This low representation is linked to the particular history of adapted parasport at the Paralympic Games. In 2000, in Sydney, Australia, the Spanish basketball team included “false” intellectually disabled people. After this scam, which called into question the classification system, adapted athletes were reinstated during the 2012 edition of the London Games, but with homeopathic doses.
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