Aussie Paralympians react to ‘offensive’ official Games account accused of ‘mocking’ athletes

Videos that been viewed millions of times have been accused of mocking Paralympians, but some athletes features say it’s just a “laugh”.

The Paralympics TikTok account has been accused of mocking and disrespecting para-athletes with its content.

The official Paralympic Games TikTok account has divided the internet over making ‘memes’ of athletes, splicing footage of them competing as cartoonish music and sound effects play.

It is a completely different social media strategy to the official Olympics TikTok account’s, which shares straight-laced videos of athletes’ impressive skills in training and competition, often as with powerful or emotive music.

The Paralympics videos, in comparison, take a slapstick comedy approach by showing compilations of para-athletes crashing and falling or by making light of the aide devices some use in competition.

One video – captioned “blind swimmers getting bopped” – shows vision-impaired swimmers getting tapped on the head during races as audio of the electronic game ‘Bop It!’ plays.

In the comments, the Paralympics account explains that “a bop on the head” is how swimmers are told they are close to the pool wall.

The TikTok used the "Bop It" sound effects on footage of vision-impaired swimmers. Picture: TikTok

The video says the athlete ‘beat Bop It!’. Picture: TikTok

The viral videos have garnered millions of views and split the internet, some slamming the videos as “disrespectful” to the athletes, while others, including some Paralympians, say the posts are completely fine – funny, even.

Australian Steelers wheelchair rugby league Paralympian Ryley Batt, who has featured in a number of videos on the account – including a compilation of rugby players falling over while a voice over repeats “do a flip” – says he’s “never thought twice” about the videos.

“I saw a few of them and – I can only comment on what I’ve seen – I think it’s very creative and something I’ve been more than happy to share on my social media about myself, and I’m in a few videos,” he told news.com.au.

“I understand there’s a fine line, but I think it’s been great for showcasing Paralympics. And you can take it either way (good or bad), but from my perspective, it’s funny.”

And Batt was sure most Paralympians would also see the videos “as a laugh” like he and his Steelers teammates did.

Batt features in a number of ‘falling’ TikToks. Picture: TikTok

He says he doesn’t mind the videos. Picture: TikTok

“Most people with disabilities have a really good sense of humour,” he said.

“You’ve got to. Obviously, a lot of us had tougher upbringings. Having disabilities since school or birth, you’re brought up with a thick skin.

“Yes, some may think it’s taking the mickey, but I think it shows they’re comfortable about having that disability and not nervous about saying the wrong thing or offending anyone.”

Batt said he thought it was great to see the Paralympics getting the attention and interaction that it was, thanks to the video, even if some people were “going to be offended by them”.

“Hopefully we can start looking at them (the videos) as a positive,” he said.

Another Australian athlete features on the account, paracyclist Darren Hicks for his gold medal ride at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Hicks stars in what may be the account’s most infamous video, with almost 41 million views, that shows him in the final stretch of the C2 time trial as edited audio of The Soca Boys’ song Follow the Leader plays.

But instead of repeating “left, right”, the audio repeats “left” – because Hicks, who had his right leg amputate after a road accident, was only pedalling with his left leg.

@paralympics

LEFT…LEFT…LEFT…

♬ Follow The Leader - Rumba Del Sol

In the comments, the account admin said they made a “slight edit to the original sound, you’ll hardly notice it”.

The video sparked outrage, with many saying they were shocked the account had not been “cancelled” yet because of its “out of pocket” content.

But Hicks has said he didn’t see a problem with the video.

“I don’t feel like they are mocking me, rather just using a song which uses the word left, and I happen to be pedalling with only my left leg,” he told NBC News.

One of Australia’s most successful Paralympians, swimmer Ellie Cole told Channel 10’s The Projectshe “really like(d) the content” and struggled to find what people were so offended by.

“I was looking at a few of the videos this morning and I was having a bit of a chuckle and actually trying to pick which ones that people were being offended over, because I couldn’t really see anything offensive,” she said.

One included a cartoon character ‘pushing’ a wheelchair-bound athlete over. Picture: TikTok

The account is accused of 'mocking' para-athletes. Picture: TikTok

Cole said the account has created some “really good discussion, and it’s really interesting to see the response” to content promoting Paralympic sports and athletes.

It has since been revealed that the person running the account is a former Paralympian themself, and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has supported the “edgy and unique content” that they are posting.

“We have created a strong following through edgy and unique content that allows us to educate an audience who might be less aware of Paralympic sport and the achievements of our athletes,” an IPC spokesman said in a statement, according to NBC News.

“We appreciate that not everyone will like the content and sometimes we don’t get it right, but we do closely monitor posts and always converse in reactions to them.

“Importantly, we find that the account allows us to positively engage with younger fans about the power of Para sport as a tool for driving social inclusion.”