The history of cheaters in the Paralympics

The history of cheaters in the Paralympics

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fact of the Day, Day day day day. Do do
do do do do do do do do do do
do do do doo.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Today's Fact of the Day.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Well, this week's Fact of the Day theme is the Paralympics,
which is an amazing event and I recommend watching a
bit of it on TV one's Doing after seven sharp.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
They do kind of the evening's Paralympic recap.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Also that the Instagram accounts still pop on the Olympics
and Paralympics account.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, there's so much good content in the Paralympics. Amazing people. Ah,
but I wanted to talk today about cheating at the Paralympics.
There has been some cheating cheaty him at the Paralympics.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'll go through a few of them, but I want
to finish on the big one.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
At Tokyo twenty twenty Paralympics game discus throw a venud
Kumar was banned for two years after we found who
have intentionally misrepresented his disabilities?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Oh okay, or like hiding an arm or something. You
just had it ducked under his jumper, like when you're a.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Kid and you're like to see that.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
No, he was about his intellectual disabilities and such right,
And that's that's quite a common thing.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Because they class the may based on yes, disabilities.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yes, so you're trying.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
To get a little hid start, and they're constantly reclassifying
because if you watch any of the Paralympics, there'll be
a little code eighteen or something, yeah, in a letter
and some some numbers, and they reclassifying them, and a
couple of times controversially, right before the Paralympics starts, they
can reclassify it right.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Up to there.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Well that's gott to be annoying if you've been training
in that class. Yeah, well exactly, yeah, and then you've
popped into a different class. But I think the most
interesting Paralympic scandal that I could find, there's a bit
of as much doping. Yeah, there's doping in the Paralympics. God, yeah,
and they tested it with speed and strength. However, it

(02:04):
was the Paralympics in Sydney that already had numerous positive
drug tests, but Spain was stripped of their gold medal
and basketball after it turns out their team had been
exposed by an undercovered journalist who had infiltrated and become
part of their team, claiming to have an intellectual disability

(02:26):
in an effort to ourse the fact he believed that
other people on the team were also lying about their
intellectual disabilities. Oh my god, so this guy makes the team,
Carlos Ribagorod.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
We had to be good at basketball, already had basketball skills.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yes. He revealed to Spanish Burtisiness magazine that most of
his colleagues in the team had not undergone medical and
medical tests to ensure they had a disability, and most
of them were lying about the disabilities they had listed.
So the IBC investigated the claims and found that the
required mental tests, which show that the competitors have an
IQ of no more than seventy five, was not ever

(03:05):
conducted by the Spanish Paralympic Committee.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
And he also alleged.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
That Spanish participants in table tennis, track and field and
swimming events were not disabled. Five medals were won for
udulently and had to be returned.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Naughty Spain. Naughty, naughty Spain. But hey, yeah, I know,
but delicious pay.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Well, let's not tarnish all of Spain with yeah, some
naughty Spanish people running through.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
So ten of the twelve.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Competitors and the winning team were not disabled one out
of twelve, including the journalists who was one. Naughty Spain, Spain,
Naughty Spain, so today's fact of the days. There's cheating
at the Paralympics as well, and perhaps no larger than
the two thousand Summer Paralympics in Sydney when the Spanish

(03:58):
basketball team who won goal very few of them ever
had anything that would qualify them for the Paralympics.