Atlympics as part of the Paralympics?

[Fabienne Gerhard]

Hi everyone - I started a discussion in the Atlympics group and would love to have your opinion on this too.

I was wondering why the Atlympics did not part of the Paralympics as well. I just thought it would be fair to honor the the extraordinary performances as part of inclusion, too.

What do you think?

[Ben Soriano]

As a parent of a daughter with cerebral palsy, who herself is aspiring to participate in Paralympic track events when she's old enough, I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

I think the more people glimpse--through social media, really--the daily challenges someone with CP has to overcome (dressing, restroom use, preparing food to eat), nevermind the challenges they face to build muscle, BALANCE, and endurance to compete at such high levels, they'll realize just how powerful and inspiring these athletes are. With Cerebral Palsy, the damage is whole body. There is often the damage to the soft tissue muscles that function the heart and lungs; it's not just paralysis of the limbs. There is vision damage, there is mouth muscle damage. Immunity is compromised. Talk about tough-minded and determined. I've not met anyone with more courage and grit and focus. Surviving past infancy is the bar set at birth for many of these folks. Walking in any way is a miracle given the injuries. Running in a race among other top athletes? Grace.

Comments like yours help build awareness and remind us to keep our perspective broad and inclusive.

[Monique vdB]

@Fabienne Gerhard and @Ben Soriano thank you for this topic! We are thinking about doing this again for Atlympics '22 and would love suggestions on how we could be more inclusive and accessible. We can extend the time period to cover the Paralympics as well but beyond that, is there more we could do?

Suggestions welcomed, the Atlympic committee is listening!

[Liam Green]

This is a great topic @Fabienne Gerhard , and one that is quite close to my heart.

I was born with a condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC), which affects all four of my limbs.  There are a few people with my condition in the Paralympics, notable Sir Lee Pearson and Will Bayley from Team GB.

I'm now very nearly 35 years old (my birthday is the end of the month), and I'm now so used to how to do things in my own way that I just get on with it - and I think the Paralympics is a great showcase of how different people do things in different ways.

For the Atlympics this year, there were a number of posts from various Atlassian's about either their own sporting achievements or their brushes with Olympians - and I think it would be great to do this again, but with a twist so that you either look at Atlassian's who consider themselves to be disabled or who have met Paralympians.

Very interested to see what @Monique vdB and the team come up with on this one

[Suvradip Paul]

@Fabienne Gerhard  for raising this. I would love to see it happen next year. There shall be always a start of everything if not done earlier. I think the responsible committee can bring events next year along with Atlympics 22. 

@Monique vdB - I would think about some ideas and I would post once somethings looks substantial.