Panorama · S69 E22
2021-06-09 · 59 min
With the Tokyo Paralympic Games approaching, Panorama investigates the sport’s classification system. Designed to make competition between athletes with different disabilities fair, it is accused of being flawed, easily manipulated and lacking credibility. Former Paralympic athlete and coach Richie Powell says para-sport saved his life after he was injured in a motor cycle accident. But he retired as a wheelchair racer, disillusioned with a classification system that he says pitted athletes with different abilities against each other. In this film, he meets other former athletes, coaches and classifiers who share their experiences of Paralympic competition, hearing that Britain, the home of the Paralympic movement, should be the country that leads change.