Paralympic swimmer wins gold after online backlash to her first medal

NANTERRE, France - After she won her first gold medal at the Paralympics on Tuesday night, U.S. swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley celebrated by heading to what she calls “The Arc” - a commons area at the Athletes’ Village with televisions showing the Games. She settled in with a group of track athletes to watch their sport, and together they cheered for American competitors late into the night. At least for a couple hours, Raleigh Crossley was not thinking about swimming and the four events remaining on her schedule.

Just six days ago, Raleigh Crossley arrived at her first Paralympics in Paris and set a world record in the 50-meter freestyle S9 preliminary heat. A few hours later, she encountered controversial comments posted on social media questioning her disability, including from a U.S. athlete and a competitor from another country. Raleigh Crossley returned to La Defense Arena later that evening and won silver in the final, a performance she said was impacted by the criticism she received earlier in the day.

In the wake of that turbulent debut, Raleigh Crossley said she distanced herself from U.S. Paralympics Swimming in Paris and started spending time with U.S. athletes from other disciplines, including track, sitting volleyball and paratriathlon. On Tuesday, in her first individual event since the controversy last week, she won the gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke S9, setting a Paralympic record with a time of 1:07.02.

“I just escape,” she said. “Thank God I have my kids here. I went into that mode. I immersed myself outside of Team USA. I took a step away from Team USA para swimming all together. … Just reaching out to the people who do care about me has been important.”

A former Florida State swimmer who for years aspired to qualify for the Olympics, Raleigh Crossley has faced questions about her disability since beginning para swimming in 2022. The 37-year-old New Jersey native has a neurological condition classified as S9 and competes against other swimmers with similar impairments.

She suffered neck and back injuries after being hit by a drunk driver in 2007 and a brain injury after a crash the following year. In 2018, she experienced paralysis on her left side due to the bleeding of a previously unknown blood tumor in her brain.

The controversy has cast fresh scrutiny on the Paralympics classification system, which divides athletes into competitions with others with similar impairments to ensure fair competition. Each sport has its own criteria; in Paralympic swimming, athletes are classified in one of three categories - physical, visual and intellectual - but the process, especially for athletes with invisible disabilities such as Raleigh Crossley, is often complex and not always transparent.

Raleigh Crossley declined to identify the U.S. swimmer who was critical of her on social media, calling her only “a prominent member of Team USA.” The USOPC said in a statement on Wednesday: “We have addressed the issues with the team and the entire Team USA delegation, and we continue to monitor for any concerns.”

In the hours after she set the world record in the 50-meter freestyle-S9 preliminary heat last week, World Para Swimming, the International Federation of Paralympic Swimming, celebrated the milestone with an Instagram post.

Sarai Gascon Moreno, a Spanish swimmer in Raleigh Crossley’s class, commented on the post: “S9? It’s a joke?”

Underneath Gascon Moreno’s comment, U.S. swimmer Jessica Long replied: “I stand with you.”

When asked Wednesday about that reply in reference to Raleigh Crossley, Long, who has won 30 Paralympic medals in her career and is one of the most decorated Paralympians in history, said: “For me, I’ve seen the Paralympic movement for so long. I think we have intentional misrepresentation for a reason. And I think we are not using it. I think we really should, right?”

“I want to see Paralympics with integrity. I want to see it better. And that’s what I will always stand for,” said Long, whose legs were amputated when she was 18 months old and who is swimming in the S8 classification in Paris.

Before she began competition last week, Gascon Moreno posted on her Instagram account: “I believe that Paralympic swimming is becoming increasingly unfair. I think the classification system harms the majority of dedicated athletes who work tirelessly day after day to achieve our dreams, only to have them shattered when not all athletes in our category compete on equal terms. You just have to watch the competition to see it for yourself.”

Raleigh Crossley was in the same building as Long and Gascon Moreno were Wednesday morning, but didn’t appear rattled: She won her 100-meter freestyle-S0 heat in 1:01.37. It was a starkly different scene than last week, when her eyes welled with tears and her voice cracked as she described her disability and the backlash she had faced.

“What other S9s require the usage of catheters and bowel program? And for people who don’t know what a bowel program is - that’s basically when you time your bowel movements and manually stimulate yourself to go to the bathroom. It’s common with people with spinal cord injuries. I’d venture to say there are not many S9′s who have to deal with that,” she said through tears. “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 head every single time. I’ll shave my head tomorrow and you can see the hole and the dent if you want.”

In the past few days, she said, support from other swimmers has poured in all over the world, including from swimmers who have faced similar questions about their disabilities and have chosen to retire. She also has built camaraderie with American athletes from other sports.

She regularly visits “The Arc” to watch the competition from around the city. She has chosen to remain on social media, even punching out a message of support Tuesday night for U.S. track athlete Ezra Frech as he went on to win a gold medal in the high jump.

“I think especially now through all of this, I’m finding my voice; I’m using my voice,” she said. “I am very secure in who I am.”