From my experience, there is already a barrier as women in sport and, separately, disability in sport carries a public perception that neither are at the same standard as what men are doing – although that is slowly beginning to change.
Naturally, when disability is involved, there is often an element of pity or rehabilitation attached to it. People see it as nice that the person has an outlet and typically look for differences in para sport compared to its Olympic counterpart to diminish its credibility.
However, archery is one of those unique sports where, at Olympic and Paralympic level, the parallels are so close that the public perception should never make para athletes seem lesser.
There are no adaptations to the field. The targets are still at 50 and 70 metres. The only difference is in the archer and their impairment – and even then, the adaptations allowed are extremely marginal.
The four of us have achieved the best world ranking finishes of any archers from our countries. Not only that, we are doing it as lone athletes, para athletes, Paralympians and women.
Go and pull up the world rankings right now, yet I have listened to humble attitudes like: “I never visualised myself going that far as a Paralympian… it’s going to be a great adventure, so let’s see how far I can go,” said Syahidah.
This notion is repeated – even by me when I was active – that the aim is simply to take part, but these women are taking over.
