The only ones who find the 2024 Paris Paralympics TikTok page offensive are able-bodied people

By Louis Shankar

Published Aug 29, 2024 at 11:14 AM

Reading time: 4 minutes

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Images courtesy of the Paralympics TikTok page

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games kicked off yesterday, Wednesday 28 August, and will run until Sunday 8 September. Around 4,000 athletes from around the globe will compete in 549 medal events across 22 sports—a stark contrast to the 10,714 athletes who competed in 329 events in 32 sports during the Paris Olympics.

As well as different disciplines, and separation by sex, many sports host several different classifications and classes. Para swimming, for example, includes ten classes for physical impairment, three for vision impairment, and one for intellectual impairment. The full range of sports are: para archery, para athletics, para badminton, blind football, boccia, para canoe, para cycling, para equestrian, goalball, para judo, para powerlifting, para rowing, shooting para sport, sitting volleyball, para swimming, para table tennis, para taekwondo, para triathlon, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair tennis. Boccia and goalball are the only two sports without an equivalent at the Olympics—well worth checking out. 

How best to keep up with the games? Since taking over the coverage in 2012, Channel 4 has been brilliant at celebrating and promoting the Paralympic Games. This year, it will host over 1,300 hours of live sport, across linear channels and streaming. Alongside veteran sports broadcasters like Ade Adepitan and Claire Balding, the public service broadcaster has former Paralympians alongside disabled media personalities, such as actress Rose Ayling-Ellis, who won Strictly Come Dancing in 2021, and comedian Josh Pugh.

Channel 4 is also supporting a new generation of talent, with content creators Fats Timbo and Milly Pickles, and actors Lenny Rush (from the British comedy-thriller TV series Am I Being Unreasonable?) and George Robinson (from the Netflix hit series Sex Education). Over 200 people will be working on the broadcaster’s coverage, including 16 disabled people from Channel 4’s Paralympics Production Trainee Scheme.

Channel 4 will be taken over by Paralympics coverage from 8 am to 11:30 pm (with just a 30-minute break for the Six O’Clock News) from Thursday 29 August until next Saturday, 7 September. More4 has team sports coverage from 9 am to 9 pm every day, presented by Arthur Williams. 

In America, NBCUniversal is providing over 1,500 hours of programming hours, including over 140 hours of live television coverage across NBC, USA Network, and CNBC. 

The Last Leg is actually relocating to Paris for the duration of the games and will air nightly. First produced as part of their London 2012 Paralympics programme, The Last Leg is a comedy talk show presented by Adam Hills, alongside comedians Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe. It has since become a weekly current affairs show and a jewel in the crown of the Channel 4 schedule, always making sure to keep an eye on disability issues and disability sport, beyond the Paralympics. 

The Paralympics take over many of the stadiums, venues, and much of the infrastructure of the Olympics—including the athletes’ village. So, the viral chocolate muffins will return! And so will the cute Phrygian cap mascots! Will the Paralympics produce as many memes as the Olympics? It’s unlikely, given less overall coverage, plus the summer holidays coming to an end this weekend. 

So far, there’s also not been any big-name ambassadors announced for the Paralympics. Notable mentions from the Olympic Games included the likes of Snoop Dogg and the Cookie Monster. That being said however, there will be some form of handover between Paris and Los Angeles, the host city for the 2028 games.

Flavor Flav, best known as part of the hip-hop group Public Enemy, was a breakthrough star of this year’s Olympics. Not only did the rapper personally sponsor the US women’s water polo team, who were still raising funds in the run-up to the games, despite being reigning champions, he also served as their go-to hype man and provided vital coverage of the sport. Although he’s not yet announced any specific equivalent plans for the Paralympics, he has been promoting the games on his social media, so keep an eye out. 

Speaking of social media, the Paralympics’ own TikTok account has been gaining quite a lot of traction (and controversy) recently for its edgy, provocative, distinctive content. It’s hard to describe the videos without ruining them—easier to just scroll through their feed. Essentially, it’s typical TikTok fare: short videos with fun soundtracks and/or comic captions. It’s often bloopers or moments of high drama, though, always laughing with, never at, the athletes. That being said, it sometimes gets very close to the line between enjoyable and uncomfortable.

“What we post on TikTok is very different to what we post on LinkedIn,” International Paralympics Committee chief brand and communications officer Craig Spence told the BBC back in April 2023. For over a year, the page has been gaining traction and views, largely to raise awareness about the games, and they’ve been doing so very successfully.

Often, criticisms that have arisen regarding the Paralympics TikTok content come from able-bodied people wanting to find fault. The content is developed by and in conversation with Paralympians and people with disabilities. In fact, the person in charge of the content is a Paralympian, and they’re supported by the same team who have been running the account for a few years now. 

“The Paralympic movement has gotten to where we are today by doing things in a bold fashion, pushing the boundaries,” Spence explained. “We know we’re treading a thin line at the moment with some of the content,” he continued. At the time of writing, only one post has been taken down, at the request of an athlete.

Indeed, this is where The Last Leg first found its footing in the industry, by making light of sometimes serious situations, and finding the joy in the discomfort. Previous coverage of disability sports focused on emotional stories, the accidents and illnesses that affected athletes. Why should the coverage be so serious compared to the Olympics?

There are now a number of disabled comics and stand-up comedians using comedy to discuss disability and fight stigma on the circuit, like Rosie Jones and Lost Voice Guy, who won Britain’s Got Talent in 2018. The Paralympics are meant to be celebratory, fun, and joyous too, using kiddy gloves only patronises both the athletes and the fans who enjoy watching.

As British Paralympian Jack Hunter-Spivey aptly explained: “I think it gets more eyes on Paralympics, where we’re getting on the trends and stuff like that on TikTok. I really like it because disability is a fragile thing.”