Use of performance-enhancing substances (otherwise known as doping) doesn’t only take place during the Olympics. Disabled sportspeople also fall prey to the temptation of using dishonest means to improve their results. Andrzej Kula talks with Professor Bartosz Molik, Dean of the Faculty of Rehabilitation at the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, who also coaches the Polish wheelchair basketball team.
Andrzej Kula: I would like to talk about cheating at the Paralympic Games…
Bartosz Molik: Cheating is a reality anywhere we go. In football, in athletics, at the Olympics, and also the Paralympics. The very fact that disabled sportspeople cheat is enough to cause a sensation, because they are often treated as poor angelic souls needing to be stroked and led by the hand. I have always said that Paralympians are no different to their non-disabled counterparts, it’s just that they have limited physical abilities. They have problems seeing, hearing, or else moving about. Nothing, however, can stop them from trying to beat the system by cheating and using substances. In terms of mentality, they are just as competitive as anyone else. They expect to hear criticism if they fail to reach their best, and they want to be treated like stars if they succeed. It is the same when it comes to breaches of rules and guidelines – those who bend or break rules at the Paralympics are no different to those at the Olympics. The majority of those involved are honest, but the minority is the same as in the non-disabled world.
One of the b
