The opposite day I used to be mindlessly scrolling by means of TikTok after I got here throughout a video of an athlete gliding by means of the water to the sound of Dory’s “Simply Hold Swimming” from Discovering Nemo. I didn’t suppose a lot of it till the athlete slammed his head in opposition to the pool wall to a cartoon-like sound impact. Then I observed he had no arms, and then I noticed who posted it: the official Paralympics TikTok account.
I used to be flabbergasted, to say the least, as a result of it simply felt…improper? However a fast scroll by means of the Paralympics profile revealed simply how unserious most of its content material is—and the way a lot individuals on the app genuinely take pleasure in and might be taught from it. (For instance, it’s completely regular for Para swimmers with a limb distinction to bump their heads on the wall to clock their time and end their race.) One video reveals an athlete who has solely his proper leg competing in an extended leap occasion to an edited model of the hip hop track “Proper Foot Creep.” “That is uncalled for, however made my day,” one consumer commented. One other TikTok reveals an athlete with dwarfism screaming as she throws the heavy metallic ball throughout her shot put occasion because the “Squirrels in My Pants” track performs within the background. “This account is so out of pocket,” somebody wrote, “and I like it.”
You would possibly assume that some super-online Zoomer is the mastermind behind this account. But it surely’s truly a bunch of 4 20- to 30-something-year-olds—three of whom have disabilities, together with two former Paralympians—who’re captivated with offering the publicity to Parasport that they didn’t have as children, in keeping with Craig Spence, chief model and communications officer of the Worldwide Paralympic Committee, and who helps form the movies’ content material technique.
So after efficiently monitoring the staff behind the account down, I instantly requested what we’re all considering: How are you getting away with this…and why is it working?!
“We realized that our content material needed to be actually edgy so as to get the engagement. Now you could have lots of people on there saying, ‘I don’t know whether or not I ought to snicker at this, and if I do snicker, do I am going to hell,’” Spence tells SELF with a chuckle. “Our content material is edgy, it’s borderline, however we’ve acquired the stability proper I imagine.”
A lot of the account’s success stems from the truth that it doesn’t sugarcoat something about what it’s like being a disabled athlete—the nice, the unhealthy, and the hella humorous. “Simply because individuals have a incapacity doesn’t imply they don’t have a humorousness, you understand what I imply?” Spence says. “So so long as we’re laughing with the athletes versus at them,” then there’s no must repent your sins each time a video has you laughing to your self.
One TikTok reveals US Paralympic triathlon athlete Brad Snyder, who’s blind, reaching his palms out in entrance of him as he makes an attempt to seek out his bike till his information redirects him; the content material staff added a sound chew from Beethoven over the video “as a result of it truly does appear to be he’s enjoying the piano,” Spence says, including that Snyder shared the video and agreed with the correct portrayal of what it’s prefer to be blind. “The content material is partaking and educating individuals concerning the challenges that our athletes are going through, not simply once they’re doing sport, however of their on a regular basis lives” as properly.
