The Best And Worst Of Rio 2016

With the Olympics and Paralympics finally complete, some of the writers from Media Diversified’s Rio 2016 series look over the very best and worst of the past six weeks: Shane Thomas writes the ‘Two Weeks Notice’ column at Media Diversified and is one half of The Greatest Events in Sporting History podcast. Twitter: @tokenbg  … Read More

The Paralympics’ Lesson In Allyship

by Shane Thomas  I’m sure you’ve heard of the African aphorism (used to the point of such cliche that one sometimes questions its origins), “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Well, in the Paralympics, get you an athlete who can do both. One of the standout… Read More

In Sport, Sometimes Greed Is Good

by Shane Thomas  I’m sure many of us have done at least one thing in our lives that took a substantial amount of time and effort: completing a degree; moving house; or passing your driving test. And when it’s done, we can relax, look back on our achievement and think, “Glad that’s over. Don’t fancy going… Read More

The Paralympics’ Representation Problem

by Vilissa Thompson  As someone who enjoys sports and has paid closer attention to adaptive sports and disabled athletes, something profound stood out: the over-whiteness of everything. With the Paralympic Games in its fifth day, I wanted to explore how the lack of diversity played a critical role as to who gets the opportunity to make… Read More

Understanding Disability: Like me, you are different. Like you, I am equal

by Khairani Barokka As commendable as it was for The Guardian to devote its recent editorial to the disparity between the Paralympics’ attention and funding, and the systemic dismissal of disabled peoples lives – through budget cuts to services and atrocious hate crimes – there are certain curious assumptions that still underlie the use of some… Read More

George Quarcoo: The Absent Paralympian

by Wendy-Ann Clarke  When George Quarcoo immigrated to Canada from Ghana in 2007, aged 12, he never thought he would become one of Canada’s fastest T12 (visually impaired) sprinters. Wearing only jeans and a t-shirt, Quarcoo – along with his father and three siblings – walked out of the airport in Toronto on that crisp November… Read More

Rio 2016: What We’re Looking Forward To

With Rio 2016 less than a week away, a handful of the writers you’ll be reading – and hopefully enjoying – over the next month give us their view on what and who they will be looking forward to seeing at the Olympics and Paralympics:   Shane Thomas writes the ‘Two Weeks Notice’ column at… Read More