Ray’s Blog

Physical activity is something I haven’t been able to do much of lately and the bulk of that activity for me comes from playing tennis which I only picked up about three years ago. In response to that new interest, our family has attended Arthur Ashe Kid’s Day three years running, and last year, Christina and I went to the US Open on the day of the men’s singles final. Of course I had planned on going that day to see the men’s final and, as it turned out, Federer defeated Djokovic (his first grand-slam final and the first ever for a Serbian man) for his fourth consecutive US Open title, a first since the open era (1968) and the first since 1923 when Bill Tilden won his fourth on his way to his sixth consecutive win in 1925. But there were some other matches being played that day and some other firsts that were even more exciting.

In the hours before the men’s final, I was able to catch the wheelchair women’s singles final on Court 13, between Esther Vergeer of the Netherlands and Florence Gravellier of France. Never seeing wheelchair tennis before I was intrigued and before too long I had figured out that the only difference in rules from standard tennis was that the ball was allowed to bounce twice instead of once before you had to hit it. But this allowable extra bounce was rarely taken advantage of as the play was usually too fast-paced to make use of it. Gravellier lost the match 6-3, 6-1 which was not surprising after I learned that Vergeer had been undefeated for over four years in women’s singles, an amazing feat.

The next match I caught was the wheelchair quad singles final. Yes, quad. This indicated that players needed one or more of the following:

• Reduced motor function necessary to perform an overhead service, or;
• Reduced motor function necessary to perform a forehand and backhand, or;
• Reduced motor function necessary to manoeuvre a manual wheelchair or;
• Inability to grip the racquet necessitating the need for taping and/ or an assistive device

in order to play.

Peter Norfolk, UK defeated David Wagner, USA 7-6 (5), 6-2. This match was intense! I missed the beginning of the men’s “regular” singles final to stay until its conclusion.

These athletes have to overcome much more physically to play the same game. Put Nadal or Serena Williams in a wheelchair and give them the inability to grasp anything with their hands and see how well they do. I think you would find that these wheelchair athletes play just as hard, have the same intensity and determination as their “normal” counterparts and in a sense are even more impressive. They have to contend with additional facets to their game, and their lives, that regular players don’t.

In 2002, wheelchair athletes first played in the Australian Open. In 2005, they were at Wimbledon, then the US Open and last year was the first year for quads at the US Open. While watching this year’s US Open, I was curious about the television coverage wheelchair tennis was receiving; I wanted to watch again. Then I remembered that there is no wheelchair tennis this year because all of the athletes are at the paralympics. So where are the paralympics? Basically, nowhere on American television.

From The New York Times - “In stark contrast to almost every other large nation, the United States will continue to have no television coverage – not even one hour – during the Paralympics, which begin Saturday in Beijing. Not live, not tape-delayed. Nothing.” The article continues to say the reason is that the other country’s television is state-run while our networks are private, profit-driven entities. While that may be true, I believe there is an attitude of prejudice and discrimination helping to prevent the coverage from happening.

For example, this is the last paragraph from the US Open’s coverage of their own wheelchair tennis - “While Kunieda, Vergeer and Norfolk were formally crowned champions on this final day at the 2007 US Open, all of the wheelchair participants will remain winners in the hearts and memories of those witnessing the action at Flushing Meadows.”

How ridiculous does this sound?:
So even though Rodger Federer and Justine Henin won the men’s and women’s singles title respectively, all the other players in the 2007 US Open will be thought of by all of us as winners in our hearts and memories.

I’m sorry but I’ve heard of paralympians complaining about being treated like they were in the Special Olympics where everybody wins. That’s how the US Open text reads - they’re all winners.

The Special Olympics don’t say “everybody wins” but what they do say under the convention of divisioning is- “The fundamental difference that sets Special Olympics competitions apart from those of other sports organizations is that athletes of all ability levels are encouraged to participate, and every athlete is recognized for his or her performance.”

The Special Olympics on Special Olympics vs. Paralymics

Two stations covering the paralympics are:
UK’s BBC
Australia’s ABC1

Streaming video available:
The official paralympicsport.tv
They also have a YouTube channel
US owned Universal Sports

In some ways, paralympians remind me of cancer survivors like me.

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