All that glitters is not gold

Olympic Gold Medal: S$1 million

Paralympic Gold Medal: S$100,000

Disability: S$900,000

Justice and Equality: Priceless

I am a little reluctant to adopt this overused MasterCard concept as a starting point, but it seems like the simplest and most straightforward way to depict the disparity in the recognition and treatment awarded to disabled athletes in Singapore.

At sweet 16, swimmer Yip Pin Xiu has made history by snagging Singapore's
first-ever gold medal at the Paralympic Games. With her triumph in the 50m backstroke, Singapore's flag and national anthem were raised and played for the first time at the Paralympic or Olympic Games. That's not all - she also picked up a silver for 50m freestyle.

The only damper in this otherwise inspiring and joyous occasion
is the prize money.

Our newly-minted sports heroine, who suffers from muscular atrophy,
will receive S$100,000 for her gold. A nice fat sum, of course.

But oh wait - if she had been able-bodied and competing in the Olympics,
she would be a millionaire now.

Is that saying we place a vastly - or rather, grossly - different value on the amount of time, as well as physical and mental effort that Olympians and Paralympians put into their training? And a different value on the glory
they bring to the country with their win?

In their quest to achieve sporting excellence, would disabled athletes have it
any easier than their able-bodied counterparts?

According to The International Paralympic Committee, the Paralympic Games
are elite sports events that seek to emphasize the participants' athletic achievements rather than their disability. They have always been held in the same year as the Olympic Games, and since 1988, they have taken place at the same prestigious venues too.

Yet, along with its article on Singapore's first-ever gold medal in the Paralympic Games, The New Paper also highlighted the issue of disability sports being viewed as less important than mainstream sports over here. It is a category that receives less funding, and where the athletes get less training allowances and prize money.

On a land that talks about basing things on justice and equality in its national pledge, isn't it about time to not only see past one's race, language and religion but also an athlete's physical status, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation...and the sporting scene?

For the same glory, they are given a much-diminished prize. It is like a reminder that for all their dogged determination and the trials they went through to get over their disability and do the nation proud, they are still perceived as lesser beings at the end of the day.

This is not merely a question of monetary gains.

The is a question of fairness and giving appropriate credit where due, and one which the media has already posed to the relevant People-With-Power-To-Change-Things.

With a gold medal as a badge of honour, perhaps there's finally more bargaining power on the table now.