Feb. 6 marks the 22nd annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day, celebrating the benefits and joys of sports participation. This year’s theme, “All In,” reflects the Women’s Sports Foundation’s vision of inclusion, of equal athletic opportunities for all girls and women, including those among the more than 50 million Americans with disabilities.
Research shows that girls who participate in sports have more confidence and self-esteem and reduced risk of developing certain types of cancer, heart disease and other health threats, such as diabetes. Nevertheless, girls with disabilities have fewer opportunities to play sports than their male counterparts.
At present, neither the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations nor the NCAA officially sanctions any interscholastic program, event or competition for individuals with disabilities.
However, the Olympic movement comprises both the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games, its counterpart for world-class athletes with physical disabilities. In 2006, 56 Paralympians represented the United States at the Winter Games, 11 of which were women. Of the 211 U.S. Winter Olympians, 89 athletes were women, roughly 42 percent of the contingent. Although women make up roughly half of Americans with disabilities, just 20 percent of Paralympians at those 2006 Games were women.
The best approach is not just to create adaptive styles of traditional sports like wheelchair basketball, but also to create new sports outlets for those athletes with disabilities (for instance, Goalball).
Public schools, and colleges particularly, should be required to create such opportunities and encouraged to take more seriously their obligations to the physical health of students with disabilities, as is required under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
Athletes with disabilities need better support to follow their dreams. Some have managed to do so despite the lack of infrastructure at the institutional level. Former Major League Baseball player and national treasure Pete Gray played with one arm and became a role model to injured troops returning from World War II.
| The Women’s Sports Foundation, founded by Billie Jean King to advance the lives of women and girls through sports and physical activities, is part of the National Girls and Women in Sport Day Coalition, which includes Girl Scouts of the USA, Girls Incorporated, the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport and the National Women’s Law Center. |
Another former major leaguer, Jim Abbott, who played without a right hand, earned an Olympic gold medal and the James E. Sullivan Award, which is given to the nation’s best amateur athlete.
Like me, the girl who competed on prosthetic “cheetah” legs, Gray and Abbott are too often considered anomalies — but not by our coaches, parents, friends and fellow athletes who recognized us as fierce competitors and thought of us as winners and true competitors. Their encouragement and respect fostered an environment in which the natural fire of an athlete can burn brightly.
This National Girls and Women in Sports Day, let’s support the girls who think they can. Let’s offer them the joy of sun on their faces, the wind at their backs and success within their grasp.
Aimee Mullins, president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, set Paralympic records in the 100 meters and long jump and became the first athlete with a disability to compete against athletes without disabilities as part of an NCAA Division I track team.
