Investigation
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Long weighed down by doubts about the authenticity of the visual impairment of some of its participants, the discipline is today showing increased vigilance by authorities in its classification methods.
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This is a delicate subject. Since the media coverage of Paralympic athletes is light years away from that of able-bodied athletes, venturing into the realm of potential cheating is taking the risk of casting opprobrium on the entirety of a movement that aspires to something much more noble than that. “The stakes here are bigger than unduly won medals,” immediately delimits the coach of the Moldovan parajudo team, Vitalie Gligor, a lawyer by training and renowned in the field for his integrity on these issues. “Losing to someone who is not as visually impaired as he claims to be, it hurts these judokas to the core of their souls,” continues this fifty-year-old with emaciated features, while the parajudo events of the Paris 2024 Games open this Thursday, September 5.
The harm here is not just sporting. It affects internal security and privacy, adding moral injustice to an already desperate quest for physical rebalancing. “I had […] every reason to complain, writes for example Cyril Jonard, the dean of the French team, in his recent autobiography. To stay in the dark, literally and figuratively, waiting, without a goal. Without a lighthouse. Without anything. But judo has been my light. My sun. The compass of my life.
