From freakshow to sideshow

In a recent Scope survey, disabled people supported integrating the Paralympics into the Olympic Games. Peter White wasn't one of them

I'm not a big fan of polls. They tend to ask wrong people wrong questions and get wrong answers!

And so it is, I believe, with the Scope poll that says that two-thirds of those asked want the Paralympics and the Olympics to run in Parallel. It's one of those answers that "ought" to be right, the answer with the warm glow of populist approval.

So why do I disagree, in the face of the right-minded tide of integration? One reason, really: the Olympics is already too big. All but its most prestigious events, such as the men's 100 metres, are already ignored.

Ask high-jumpers or shot-putters how much coverage they get, even when the Olympics is on the box 24 hours a day. Then look at what would happen if the Paralympics were subsumed into it as well. It would immediately be asked, as part of the deal, to cut the number of its events. After all, if the biggest sporting event in the world amalgamates with the second biggest sporting event in the world, something has to give!

Now, there's a reason why the Paralympics is so big: the number of categories in each event has to be large in order to make it fair, with like competing against like. If the categories were wider and fewer, those with more severe disabilities would inevitably be squeezed out!

There's nothing "disablist" about this. Just the same thing happens in mainstream sports where differences in weight have to be taken into account, such as boxing. The only difference is that in the Paralympics, it applies to every event, not just a few, and that huge number of niche events would fail to attract media attention.

That would be a great shame, when such great strides have been made in Paralympic coverage over the past 20 years.

Having covered the Games since Atlanta in 1996, and campaigned vigorously to have it covered in a proper sports-orientated rather than patronising way, this for me would be huge step backwards. We've gone from having Paralympic sport seen as a kind of freak show to its being given day-by-day, hour-by-hour commentary, led largely by disabled experts.

Join up the events and most of that would be lost. We'd be back in the days when Paralympic events races were tacked on to the main event, and regarded as a "novelty" by the crowd. Legitimate sporting events would revert to being regarded as novelty acts for the big top.

If a fifth of those who were questioned in the poll think that the Paralympics is "patronising", well, all I can say is: "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"