From the New York Times:

Tony Iniguez (left), a wheelchair racer who is representing the United States in the Beijing Paralympics, is suing the U.S. Olympic Committee for discrimination. He is one of many Paralympians who criticize the U.S.O.C for providing direct financial assistance and benefits to Paralympic athletes at lower rates than to Olympians in comparable sports.

The Paralympians say they are not able to compete at the same elite level as athletes from other nations such as Canada and Britain that provide equal support to athletes in both the Paralympics and the Olympics.

Iniguez, a 37-year-old high school art teacher in Aurora, Ill., said that because he has had to work full time for his family’s health insurance and has received almost no assistance from the U.S.O.C., he will race in Beijing relatively unprepared for the serious competition.

… In hearing the lawsuit brought by Iniguez and two retired wheelchair racers, the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals have ruled that the U.S.O.C. has the legal discretion to fund able-bodied and disabled athletes at different rates. (The case has been appealed to the Supreme Court.)

But even the District Court judge who ruled against Iniguez in 2006 wrote: “Do I decry a culture that relegates Paralympians to second class status in the quantity and quality of benefits and support they receive from the U.S.O.C.? Emphatically yes.”

(New York Times photo)

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 6:53 pm and is filed under exercise/sports, international, law, wheelchair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.