It Shouldn’t Be This Costly to Be a Paralympic Athlete

Trunnell owns an embroidery enterprise known as Roxifi Embroidery that appeals principally to the horse neighborhood and supplies her with an earnings. She makes blankets, saddle pads, ice boots, standing wraps, in addition to shirts and sweaters, “mainly something I can hoop and get a needle by way of,” Trunnell says, as a result of “if you wish to play within the sandbox with the large boys, you then’re going to must pay.”

Roxanne Trunnell competing in a para-dressage occasion.

Courtesy of Lindsay McCall

Carly Weilminster, senior director of sport communications and social media for the US Equestrian Federation (USEF), tells SELF that equestrian doesn’t have a nationwide workforce, so athletes aren’t paid stipends, however they’ll obtain funding and grants “based mostly on efficiency and expertise” to offset prices related to worldwide journey and competitions. The identical is true of Paralympians in different sports activities, who can apply for quite a lot of grants and funding that the USOPC and third-party organizations supply. However a few of those that spoke to SELF say these alternatives are restricted, not marketed properly, and nonetheless aren’t sufficient to cowl their bills. (The USOPC, in contrast to different nationwide Olympic and Paralympic committees, doesn’t obtain authorities monetary help and is funded fully by donations from followers and sponsorships from industrial companions.)

Journey-related mishaps aren’t simple to get better from.

Attending to competitions as a disabled athlete additionally poses fairly massive monetary dangers. Brim says that just about each time she travels with a workforce, no less than one individual’s chair is misplaced or broken, regardless of providing airport workers detailed directions about learn how to deal with the gear. “It’s an enormous bummer, and we wish to see change round it as a result of it’s simply so uncalled for.”

Brian Siemann, 34, a three-time track-and-field Paralympian, agrees. He says that airport workers want higher coaching on learn how to transport and retailer wheelchairs as a result of they’ll take 1000’s of {dollars} and several other months to exchange. “A mobility machine needs to be in a very totally different class of concern than somebody’s suitcase,” he tells SELF. When Siemann travels by way of airplane, he can field up his roughly $15,000 racing chair fairly properly to keep away from injury, however he can’t do this together with his on a regular basis chair as a result of he wants it as quickly as he will get off a airplane. (Wheelchairs may be taken on planes in the event that they aren’t motorized and may slot in overhead bins or different designated areas contained in the cabin, but when they don’t match they’re positioned within the cargo portion of the airplane with checked baggage.)

Siemann’s on a regular basis chair prices about $7,000 as a result of it’s custom-made to his physique, however his insurance coverage considers that “a luxurious,” which means it’s near unattainable to get it lined. So when an airport in Miami misplaced it and provided $100 as an apology, it was a “jarring expertise,” to say the least, he says. “There’s all the time a better than seemingly likelihood that some a part of your mobility machine goes to be misplaced or broken, which then fully impairs and restricts your potential to get round safely,” Siemann says. “And it’s not a fast repair for anybody,” notably when sports activities gear is concerned.

Healthcare can get difficult and costly for athletes with disabilities.

It’s additionally more difficult—bodily, sure, but additionally financially—for lots of Paralympic athletes to maintain themselves wholesome in comparison with their Olympic friends. Some disabilities usually require common medical consideration and may make athletes extra susceptible to sicknesses or stress due to the traumatic occasions or underlying situations that trigger them—all of which might get costly, particularly in nations just like the US that don’t have common well being care.