Winning a medal at the Paralympics was supposed to be the highest moment for Christie Raleigh Crossley.
But it wasn’t.
After setting a world record in the prelims, then winning a silver medal in the 50 free S9 classification, the U.S. swimmer faced a backlash of online bullying, which included U.S. Paralympic teammate Jessica Long and Spanish Paralympian Sarai Gascon Moreno.
“S9 It’s a joke?” Gascon Moreno wrote.
Long responded with “I stand with you!”
Raliegh Crossley has faced questions about her disability in the past. But the questions this time ruined what should have been a joyous moment.
“I immediately got back to the Village and met with athlete safety, in order to protect myself from this ongoing harassment that I’ve been enduring for the past two years, since I’ve entered para swimming,” Christie Raleigh-Crossley said. “So I went from enjoying a world record (set in the morning heats) to being utterly devastated that the entire world seemed to think I was a cheater and that I was somehow faking my hole in my brain and the cyst in my spinal cord.
“What other S9s require usage of catheters and a bowel program? So, to be told online by all of these bullies that I’m somehow not as disabled as I appear, just because I can swim faster than them, it’s pretty devastating, because my family witnesses my disability every day, and what it takes away from us and our family life, what it takes away from me as a human, as a woman.”
She became a Para swimmer in 2022. Her S9 classification stems from a neurological condition that occured after being hit by a drunk driver in 2007. According to the Team USA profile, she experienced paralysis on her left side because of a blood tumor in her brain.
“When I said earlier today that I wanted to change the perception of what a Paralympian is, and what you think of when you see a Paralympian – because I don’t fit into their box, because you can’t measure me with a measuring stick somehow that invalidates my disability. Because you can’t see the hole in my brain.
“I’ll shave my head tomorrow, and you can see the scar and the dent if you want,” she said. “But no, it’s been pretty awful, and the fact it is a prominent team member of Team USA who has come after me the hardest, it’s just absolutely disgusting. I’m not going to comment on who it was, but I will say that for all those people out there who have invisible disabilities, I stand with you and I sit with you, too.”
