Sports Artifact

Tatyana was aware of the work that would be needed for her to have the same choices as her classmates. Her parents had talked to the principal of her high school, but nothing could be done. Tatyana with the help of her parents, went to the courts in the spring of 2006, this is a place where important decisions are made by judges. Once in the courtroom, the judge asked the school principal if they were allowing Tatyana to race? He answered yes, but this was not entirely true, they were only allowing her to go around the track by herself, with no one there to support her. The school principal told the judge that because she was different, she should be separated from everyone else. After 5 hours of being questioned by the judge, the decision was made that the school principal was treating Tatyana unfairly due to her disability, this is called discrimination. After the judge’s decision was made, the school decided to allow Tatyana to race, but she was not allowed to compete against other students, which meant she would not be able to receive any medals for her hard work. This led Tatyana and her family to keep fighting for equal 1treatment when it came to sports events. After a long 2-year fight in the courts, the Maryland Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities Act was passed in the spring of 2008.
This Act allowed all students with disabilities the same opportunities to compete in sports and receive medals for their hard work. Tatyana finally felt like she was just like everyone else.
I thought this was an important addition to the original children’s story, as it shows that even though Tatyana was a young high school student, she was passionate about what she believed in. Which lead her to become an ambassador for persons with (dis)Abilities (PWD) in the fight for equal access and participation in sporting events. Through this fight, she was able to dismantle ableist beliefs that PWD are not capable of participating or competing in sports. Tatyana was able to use her personal experiences to help educate the judges, lawyers, government, and school officials about sports and (dis)Ability. Using the term ‘it takes a village’, would greatly apply to Tatyana’s journey through the court system, as without the help of local groups, civil rights organisations and lawyers who were encouraged by the court case the outcome may have looked a lot different. Passing this Act, gave PWD a new level of freedom to relate to their peers as well as develop their own individuality.
A phenomenological exploration of freedom means that freedom is simultaneously a release from bodily and societal limitations (Brymer & Schweitzer, 2013). Meaning that the societal assumptions that some may hold about PWD being incompetent and unskilled when partaking in sporting activities is inaccurate (Brymer & Schweitzer, 2013). By having stories such as Tatyana’s, we can see that real life examples of resisting ableism and invisibility regardless of age or perceived ability is possible.
Like Tatyana, I also felt freedom in doing things my own way when I was on the ski hill with my ski instructor, using a bi ski. A bi ski is a seat with skis attached and handles for the ski instructor to hold and control. Along with the ski instructor, I was able to control the skis by shifting my body weight from side to side. I would hold my arms out like an airplane, and depending on which way I leaned, it would move in that direction. I loved going fast at blinding speed, the faster the better. I particularly appreciated the emotion-motion dynamic my emotion affected my bodily movements, and I had the felt experience of being moved and moving (Sheets-Johnstone, 2018). This actively demonstrates that from a phenomenological perspective, emotion is a whole-body experience. They move through the body at the same time, they move us to move, in my experience, when I felt the cold wind hit my face and activate a burning sensation on my skin, I would be filled with exhilaration and my face would light up, both figuratively and literally (Sheets-Johnstone, 2018). I would be laughing down the ski hill and my feelings of freedom were endless; I knew that as I shifted from side to side and my ski instructor controlled both my skis and his own that we would be able to move in tandem with that exhilarating speed I wanted. The fighting against the elements, made me want that exhilaration more. The more I smiled or laughed, the easier the movements would become for my body, to shift the skis direction. I indeed felt like the fastest woman on earth!