By Alaa Abdel-Ghani It's too bad the media and the public tuned out of Beijing just as Egypt was starting to get good. In the recently concluded Paralympics, Egypt corralled four gold, four silver and four bronze medals, good enough for 29th place out of 68 countries who won medals and 148 participating nations overall. When compared to the puny bronze medal our athletes managed in what some like to call the "real" Olympics held a month ago also in the Chinese capital, our Paralympics did darn well. But did anybody care? The pre-Olympic media hype was huge; for the Paralympics, almost imperceptible. When the Games ended, because we were so abysmal, media coverage dried up. But the media showed very little interest in our Paralympic athletes who did immeasurably better. We don't want to say this paradox smells of bigotry but we'll say it anyway: it smells of bigotry. We know that for many disabled people, simply competing, just being there, is joy enough. But many disadvantaged athletes do have an Olympic-like determination to be the best at what they do and, as such, they are owed, at the very least, the propagandisation of their achievements. In the Paralympics, which takes in athletes with physical impairments, and the Special Olympics, for athletes with mental disabilities, Egypt always figures prominently in the final medals standings. As such, the question often surfaces as to why our able-bodied athletes do so poorly while their disadvantaged brethren do the opposite. The failure in Beijing was widely attributed to the clash between sports officials, including the heads of federations and National Olympic Committee (NOC) members, and Hassan Sakr, the head of the National Sports Council (NSC). In Beijing, they continued arguing over the new regulations governing clubs and federations which Sakr introduced just months before the Olympics. The new regulations seek to introduce new blood to the NSC, and have been viewed as an attempt to force out veteran sports officials who refuse to leave their posts. There was no such conflict within the Egyptian Paralympic camp which put money and power in second place. First and foremost came the welfare of the athletes themselves. Egypt's Paralympic achievement in Beijing was not one of its best. In Athens four years ago, we finished 24th with 23 medals, six of them gold. In Sydney 2000, we picked up28 medals, including six gold. In Beijing, we weren't even the best in our part of the world. South Africa, Tunisia, Iran and Kenya finished ahead of us, and Nigeria, Algeria and Morocco tied with us in the gold category. Thus, we are slipping and a comprehensive review of why this is happening should be conducted. But there will be no need for a full- blown investigation of the kind which President Mubarak ordered to find out what went wrong for us in the Beijing Olympics. All what our Paralympians need is a bit of a pep talk; our able-bodied souls, on the other hand, need a complete makeover. To be sure, in future Paralympics, it won't get any easier, not after it was decided that athletes with intellectual disabilities will be able to compete at the 2012 Games in London (the International Paralympic Committee suspended intellectually disabled categories after Sydney 2000 when 10 members of Spain's basketball team were discovered not to have any disabilities). The addition of more athletes in the Pralympics will make winning medals harder and harder. Some people are strongly against the notion of special needs athletes competing to win medals. But there's nothing wrong with people with physical and mental impairments competing against one another. Events like the Paralympics are designed to give disadvantaged people an opportunity to gain confidence, improve their fitness and become respected and useful members of society. It's about the human spirit and our constant drive to overcome adversity; to see how we measure up against other folks and how good we ourselves can be when we have difficulties to overcome; to improve the quality of life for the world's most disadvantaged citizens who in the end are competing in sports not because they are easy but because they are difficult. It would only trivialise the Paralympics to wheel out the old "it's not the winning that counts" cliché, but of course participation is one of the most important components of the Paralympics philosophy. Participation brings its own rewards for the athletes, coaches and their family members, but winning plays a big part as well. Let's not forget that Paralympic athletes compete for the same fundamental reason anyone else does -- to win. It would be a pointless exercise otherwise.
