Paralympics and Olympics Together? Debate Within Movement Has Nuance

When the Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics & Paralympics released a report about the state of the Olympic movement, much of the immediate focus was centered around the future of the U.S. Center for SafeSport.

But within the report was a potentially interesting subject when it comes to Paralympic Sport: The Committee said future Olympic hosts in the U.S. “should be encouraged to think creatively about scheduling the Olympics and Paralympics, exploring benefits that might come from holding both games concurrently.”

The idea of pushing the IOC to consider having the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games held concurrently is a decision that would have to be made by the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee, not a future Games host.

There is a train of thought that organizing both Games at the same time would lead to the Paralympics being overshadowed; but while at first glance it may not sound like a feasible idea, there may be an appetite within the Paralympic space to explore the idea.

“In the U.S., we always love bigger, better, bolder things,” USOPC Chief of Paralympics Julie Dussliere said. “I think our athletes, our NGBs, just the sport community here in the U.S. would embrace that. International relationships and complexities are definitely something that has to be considered.”

What is most important to consider, Dussliere said, is the logistical side of things — on every level.

“Going into the Olympics and the Paralympics and everything we have to do for both games, it sort of makes my head explode thinking about trying to put all of the sports, the operations, the logistics together,” she said. “Certainly it could be done but would require a lot of coordination and collaboration and partnership with the IOC and the IPC. … We could be at the Olympic and Paralympic Games for six weeks, eight weeks. I think that’s probably the biggest hindering factor is how do you just merge that much sport together in the same period of time? But it’s an interesting concept and one that has come up in a lot of different conversations.”

Another topic of debate is if holding the two events concurrently would leave the Paralympics overshadowed. When wheelchair tennis player David Wagner competes in the Grand Slam tournaments around the world, the wheelchair tennis event is in the back half of the event as the able-bodied tournament is reaching its climax.

“There are times you get a little overshadowed by the able-bodied athletes,” Wagner said. “But I’ll tell you what, having those able-bodied athletes bringing in spectators has given you as a para athlete a lot more publicity, a lot more notoriety, a lot more exposure that you might not get. It’s a tough one. I see the pluses and minuses to both sides of it, I really do.”

Wagner’s biggest immediate thought when asked about the issue is, like Dussliere, the logistical part of the Games.

“I don’t see how they could hold it at the same time, it’s just two events that are both too big and too large,” he said. “You’re talking 16,000, 17,000 people in the Villages at one time. Can you imagine what the chow hall would look like then? I just don’t know if it could be physically viable. Would it give more attention to para sport? Absolutely. Could it detract from para sport? Yeah, absolutely it could. I like it the way it is.”