Should Wheelchair Racing be an Olympic Event?
This might sound like an odd question, but I would like you to consider it seriously.
Wheel chair racing has been an event in the Para Olympic Games since 1960. To be eligible to enter this event, you have to be suffering from a suitable type of disability such as an amputated leg, or a spinal cord injury. Basically to enter you need to be a person who might normally need to need a wheel chair. The rules are complicated, but very appropriate to the event; that is they are appropriate to wheel chair racing as a Para Olympic event.
What I am suggesting is that it should also be an Olympic event. For the Olympics there would be no restrictions on whether or not a person was disabled. Occasionally, a Para Olympic medal winner has gone on to become an Olympic competitor, despite their disability. Naturally, the range of events where this is likely is small. The Para Olympic competitors reach very high standards.
Some wheel chair users become very good at using their wheel chair. These people might even have an advantage over able bodied people.
Using a wheel chair is not as easy as it looks. Once, in Adelaide, there were objections to the wheel chair ramp leading into a public building. Two of the officials concerned set out to prove it could be safely used. One of them wheeled the other in a borrowed wheel chair and pushed him up the ramp. The wheel chair turned over and the man in it was slightly hurt. The ramp was fixed very quickly after that.
I am not suggesting removing the wheel chair race from the Para Olympic Games, but adding it, without any restrictions, (except the general ones like drug use etc.) to the Olympic Games. If the event gets won by a person with only one leg, I would be quite happy. They would also know they had won an event against all comers, not a necessarily restricted class of people.
Of course, this event requires specialized equipment (A Wheel Chair), but most Olympic events require special equipment. Even swimming. Although a Human can swim with only their own body, nowadays, Olympic swimmers are increasingly getting vey high tech swimming costumes.
I do not regard the requirement of specialized equipment as being any bar to including tis event in the Olympic Games.
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