Originally Posted by batdude_uk1:
“I have never suggested that the Paralympics and Olympics should be merged, all I have said is that we have seen some outstanding athletes produce some unbelievable feats at the Paralympics, just as we have done at the Olympics.
Saying that for this award they should be considered as equals, and should be on the same level, is not saying that o e event should be cancelled, and we should just have a bigger version of the Olympics, I honestly don't quite know how you have made that huge leap.
That is simply not what I was saying at all.
As for saying where you have downplayed the Para athletes, well you did suggest for some reason that they should be excluded from this award, and should have their own separate award, that to me is not being very inclusive, it is being very exclusive and not in a good way.
This award (well the main one is the one we are discussing here) is about recognising top level sporting achievement, and that is exactly what F1, a major in golf or tennis, the Olympics, and Paralympics are, and the people who do well in them, and other sporting areas, deserve to be placed together on this list.
There shouldn't be one for this, and one for that as you suggested earlier.
Top level sporting achievement should be recognised and treasured no matter if the person has two arms, and two legs, a car, a horse, or is blind, if they do well, then why not celebrate that fact?
Having one, two, three, four or more Paralympians on the shortlist would not be tokenism either, it would be because of their sporting merit, just as it would if Andy Murray, or Lewis Hamilton makes the final shortlist.
I would agree with you about tokenism, if there was someone who make the shortlist and for example they had say on got two bronze medals, and someone like Murray missed out altogether.
That however I doubt will be the case this time around, so no cries of tokenism will be merited.”
As I'm on my phone now I cant respond to this in depth but suffice to say
1. Your claim that I want Paralympians excluded is wrong. Quote where I said it please, not something that attempts to interpret it.
2. My discussion over about merging the events is directly in response to your assertion that the athletes are just as good.
3. It seems to me that its never you missing the point in these discussions. However you are so black and white about things that there is no room for realistic discussion of the issue in hand.