Paralympian Christie Raleigh Crossley Says She Was 'Verbally Accosted' After Silver Medal Win, Slams 'Bullies'

Mar. 15, 2025

Christie Raleigh Crossley.Photo:Ian MacNicol/Getty

Ian MacNicol/Getty

Paralympic swimming events are divided into 10 classes based on degree of functional disability. According toParalympic.org, the classifications “determine which athletes are eligible to compete in a sport and how athletes are grouped together for competition.”

Raleigh Crossley has said that she’s been critiqued for competing in S9 events. S9 includes athletes who “for example, swim with joint restrictions in one leg or with double below-the-knee amputations,“a Paralympic breakdownexplains.

Christie Raleigh-Crossley.Michael Reaves/Getty

Michael Reaves/Getty

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Raleigh Crossley has had multiple injuries throughout her life, but a 2018 snowball fight with her son led to her partial paralysis.

When she was hit in the head with ice during the incident, doctors examined her brain and discovered bleeding and a blood tumor — requiring part of her skull to be removed in order to extract the tumor. The subsequent bleeding and surgery resulted in Raleigh Crossley sustaining paralysis on her left side, perUSA Today.

In anas-told-to for Today.com, Raleigh Crossley, highlighted, again, what she’s experienced: “I’ve dealt with bullying because I’m not missing limbs or because people think I don’t ‘look disabled.’ "

“I want to show that Paralympians are more than athletes who are missing limbs. We are not just people in wheelchairs. We are not all blind,” said the Paralympian. “There is a spectrum of what makes someone eligible and there are many athletes who are missing out because they just don’t know.”

To learn more about all the Olympic champions and Paralympic hopefuls, come topeople.comto check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Paris Paralympics, beginning Aug. 28, on NBC and Peacock.

source: people.com