More Paralympians in the News: swimmer Kendall Bailey

A great story appeared in the NY Times this week about a swimmer with multiple disabilities and his journey to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

Kendall Bailey qualified for the Paralympics in the 100 meter breaststroke. As an athlete with cerebral palsy, he qualified within a classification of athletes with similar disabilities. He also has Klinefelter's Syndrome, autism, and mental retardation. Overall I thought the tone of the story was great. It's not just the story of him swimming, it's also the story of how the US Paralympic Committee tried to disqualify him because of his multiple other disabilities, not once but twice!

In a nutshell, the Paralympics has many categories of ability levels and different disabilities. I believe that an athlete must qualify within their own classification or a more-able classification. The Paralympics used to have a classification for athletes with intellectual disabilities, but after the 2000 Spanish basketball team was discovered to consist mostly of non-disabled athletes, that classification was eliminated.

Back to Bailey's story. Initially, another country protested and had Bailey reclassified as "only intellectually disabled" and therefore ineligible for the Paralympics. He is a talented athlete but he isn't yet able to advocate for himself on this level. His mother appealed that decision and had him reclassified as a physically disabled athlete. All was well, and Bailey qualified for the Summer Games.

Several weeks later, Bailey's mother found out that the US Paralympics committee had made a formal protest to the International Paralympic Committee, stating that Bailey had an intellectual disability, and "the intellectual disability classification for swimming (S14) is not presently recognized by the IPC; nor is an intellectually disabled swimmer eligible to compete under the IPC Swimming Functional Classification System." The complaint stated he had been incorrectly classified and he should be disqualified from the Paralympics. The claim was ridiculous, but Bailey's mother had to spend $25,000 in legal fees to get it resolved! Said his mother about the issues he has faced,

Just because he has other issues, he’s been looked at in a whole different way that hasn’t been fair,” she said. “He’s been singled out and isolated because of his autism, because of his intellectual disability. If Kendall wasn’t autistic, would any of this have happened? Absolutely not.

The story really highlights the need for self-advocacy and advocacy of parents and friends. Without someone to fight for his rights, Bailey wouldn't be going to Beijing this summer. The article also took a balanced look at how Kendall struggled growing up and playing every sport he tried until he learned to swim and found his niche. Best of luck on Team USA, Kendall!

Image: A young man in a swimming pool leans against the side and squints into the sun. He wears a swim cap and goggles, and is surrounded by sports drinks and swim training equipment.

Actors and Characters With Disabilities: RJ Mitte as Walter Junior on 'Breaking Bad"

The LA Times says that "although nearly 20% of Americans from the ages of 5 to 64 have some kind of disability, less than 2% of the characters on TV display one, and only one-half of 1% actually have speaking parts."

This year a new show on AMC debuted a great kid actor with a disability in a great role. The show is Breaking Bad starring Brian Cranston (who you may recognize as the dad from Malcolm in the Middle) as Walter White, a meek, middle-aged high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal cancer. In desperation, Walter turns to creating and selling illegal drugs to get money for his treatment and to support his wife and son after his death. Cranston's portrayal is nothing short of incredible and I hope he gets an Emmy for his work on the show. Season One was fantastic, and I anxiously await Season Two in 2009. I would highly recommend this show to anyone (but it is DEFINITELY not for kids. Ok for teens though, with a strong anti-drug message).

Walter's son, Walter Junior, is a high school student with cerebral palsy. He walks with crutches and has somewhat slurred speech. Other than that, he is a typical kid, dealing with his disability and struggling to deal with his father's diagnosis of cancer. It is a strange world we live in when I can praise a show merely for having a disabled character who is realistic, not played for pity or tragedy, and portrayed by an actor with a disability, but there you go. Breaking Bad is a perfect example of how to have an interesting, well-rounded character with a disability.

The actor, R.J. Mitte, does a fantastic acting job in my opinion. He is believable and he has great comic timing. His character is sarcastic, in some ways immature, and in other ways wise beyond his years. Besides that, he has all-American boy good looks. I'd say he is a cutie-pie but if one were fifteen it would be fair to call him hunky. I'm hoping that we will see him in more roles after this one.

Watching the first episode, there was some debate in the Impossible Universe Household as to whether he had a disability or not. The matter was settled a few weeks later when I ran into him at a drugstore around the corner from my house (actor-spotting: a perk of living in LA, I guess). I wanted to tell him that he was great on the show, but I decided not to bug him because he's just a kid (14 or 15 I think). He was ahead of me in line patiently trying to buy a toy for his tiny outspoken sister, who was bouncing all around him making various demands. He did have CP, but a more mild form of it that his character Walter Junior-no crutches and somewhat clearer speech. So he does have a disability, but he is also 'acting' his disability. Unlike many tv actors, he was very handsome in person.

R.J. Mitte in USA Today
R.J. Mitte in LA Times
R.J. Mitte on the Breaking Bad website

I'll leave you with a quote from the LA Times article about him:

The people that are the guardians of storytelling in America claim to be the most creative people that there are. Yet, if you remember in elementary school and kindergarten, most kids had the eight Crayola box. That’s what most of the people in Hollywood are using. Eight crayons. They have the nice, handsome white guy, the beautiful white girl, sidekicks, a couple of others. I’m saying if you are really going to tell the story, you need the 64 Crayola box.

Image: R.J. Mitte as Walter White Junior. A handsome white teenager with shaggy brown hair looking away from the camera.