Paralympic social media accounts front traditional media with edgy take

| | Paris
  • 0

Paralympic social media accounts front traditional media with edgy take

Monday, 26 August 2024 | AP | Paris

The message is clear: Paralympians are not participating. They are competing.

A number of athletes preparing for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games have proclaimed that on their social feeds over the past few days, reminding the world that Olympians are not the only athletes coming to Paris looking for gold.

The games will be underway next week with the opening ceremony on Wednesday. Athletes and the games’ own social and creative teams have been taking a more aggressive approach to their messaging, leaning into disabilities and being willing to risk discomfiting their audience to introduce athletes and their personalities, not just their disabilities. The International Paralympic Committee has released several YouTube videos to show the edgier side of its competitors, including : “ Paris 2024: What Really Matters “ and “ Paris 2024: 100 Days to Go - Welcome to the Paralympics.” The tagline for both: “This is the Paralympics… they’re not playing games.”

A Guy With No Arms’If you didn’t know the characters, the “What Really Matters” series opens on a jarring note. A genial 5-foot-6-inch man grasps a car’s steering wheel with his foot. He leans over to his passenger and says with a sideways smile, “Is this your first time riding in a car with a guy without arms?”

The guy with no arms is Paralympic silver medalist Matt Stutzman, who has built up a brand as the “Armless Archer.” He maneuvers the car with his feet: left foot on the pedals, right foot on the steering wheel.

Stutzman’s passenger is Chuck Aoki, a wheelchair rugby player joining Stutzman on Team USA. In the YouTube series, Stutzman hosts Aoki and para track and field athlete Scout Bassett telling their stories from a different point of view with humor thrown in.

“There’s that connection; it’s like an unspoken bond,” said Stutzman, who earned a silver medal in the men’s individual compound open at the London games in 2012. “I might not know who Bassett is, but we both know that we both had to go through something specific to even get to the level where we’re at in sport.”

Edgy takes The IPC has received criticism for leaning into the disabilities of their athletes, but spokesman Craig Spence said the irreverent approach was necessary.

“If you speak to Paralympians, they’ve got a great sense of humor. They’re not wrapped up in cotton wool and protected from society,” Spence said in an interview earlier this year.

“They like to laugh about themselves,” he said. “Like we all do, and that’s why we’ve tried to be really edgy on the Paralympic TikTok account.”

Spence said the criticism the IPC had received came mostly from people outside the community of people with disabilities, and the comments often ask who the admin is on the account - implying it’s someone making fun of disabilities. But according to Spence, the “admin” is 2008 Paralympian Richard Fox from Britain.

State Editions

11 killed in Hardoi road mishap

07 November 2024 | PNS | Lucknow

Yogi to inaugurate Akanksha Haat

07 November 2024 | PNS | Lucknow

Prashant Kumar likely to made permanent DGP

07 November 2024 | Preetam Srivastava | Lucknow

Mobility crisis is behind pollution in city: CSE

07 November 2024 | Staff Reporter | Delhi

Delhi’s air quality ‘very poor’, smog blankets city

07 November 2024 | Staff Reporter | Delhi

Sunday Edition

The comeback man

03 November 2024 | Gyaneshwar Dayal | Agenda

DINING REDEFINED! WYNN MACAU DEBUTS DRUNKEN FISH

03 November 2024 | RUPALI DEAN | Agenda

Oktoberfest on a Platter

03 November 2024 | Sharmila Chand | Agenda

Vegan Wonders: Where to Eat Next!

03 November 2024 | Team Agenda | Agenda

LIVING IT UP IN AN AIRBNB IN LONDON

03 November 2024 | AKANKSHA DEAN | Agenda

Srisailam: A journey to spiritual splendour

03 November 2024 | VISHESH SHUKLA | Agenda