On TikTok: Paralympics fail videos cause outrage online

After the Olympic Games, the next sporting highlight is currently taking place in Paris: the Paralympics. The mega-event is being well received not only in the city of love or on television. The Paralympics are also being skilfully presented on social media. But some people are annoyed by the way it is presented.

The videos of the main channel on Tiktok keep going viral. This is mainly because the failures of para-athletes are portrayed in a humorous way. Inclusion activist Raul Krauthausen also criticizes this portrayal on Tiktok.

“With this type of content, the account generates millions of views. But at the expense of disabled people,” the 44-year-old complains. At least in terms of numbers, Krauthausen, who is himself in a wheelchair, is right. The Paralympics’ Tiktok channel has 4.6 million followers and over 175 million likes.

The biggest hit is a clip in which blind triathlete Brad Snyder looks for his bike in the transition zone. The American stretches both arms forward to feel for the bike. The video is captioned with the following text: “Para triathlon is swimming, cycling and air piano.” The video is accompanied by classical music by Beethoven. The short video has been viewed over 37 million times so far.

The sporting achievements of the Para athletes would be degraded by portraying them as memes. The Paralympics are about sport, performance, competition and rivalry, the activist reminds viewers. “The Paralympics are not a children’s birthday party, they are sport,” his statement concludes. His video has been viewed by over 130,000 users so far.

Pro Infirmis is taking the same approach. “In some of the articles, the athletes are clearly degraded,” said the professional organization for people with disabilities in response to a request from 20 minutes. The umbrella organization also feels that some boundaries are being crossed.

Mareike Miller is a German wheelchair basketball player and was made fun of in a video. The footage was from the 2021 Paralympics in Tokyo. “Self-ironic short videos like this are part of social media,” the 34-year-old told GMX.

But whether the official IPC channel needs to show videos in which para-athletes behave clumsily is another matter, said Miller. Because of the two-time Paralympic medalist, para-sports serve as a role model because it does a lot of educational work against discrimination against people with disabilities.