Patently Unfair

 Paralympian Victoria Arlen arrives at the 2013 ESPY Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on July 17, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

"I'm so heartbroken with what has happened. I feel numb and completely shocked with the turn of events. To have trained so hard this past year and come so far only to be humiliated and targeted by the ICPC for reasons unknown baffles me.
"Being penalized for maybe having a glimmer of hope of one day being able to walk again is beyond sad.
"As much as I'd like it to happen, it is not a reality" [recovery from disablement].
"I may not be able to use my legs, but my arms are strong enough to break four World Records in the sport of swimming."
Paralympic swimmer Victoria Arlen

Alastair Grant / AP FILE PHOTO

In this file photo from 2012 Paralympics, Victoria Arlen, of the U.S., reacts after setting a new record in the women's 100-metre freestyle S6 heat at the 2012 Paralympics games in London. New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan has joined others including the state's two U.S. senators in criticizing a decision by the International Paralympic Committee barring Arlen from the games because her disability isn't considered permanent.

Victoria Arlen is eighteen years of age, and she has accomplished a great deal. The Exeter, New Hampshire resident is a gold-medal winning Paralympic athlete. She holds a world record, and is an aspiring model and actress. Now the International Paralympic Committee claims that medical reports indicate she may not be permanently disabled.

The Paralympic Games, evidently, are open only to contestants who can prove that their physical condition is that of permanent disablement; that there is no conceivable hope in their future that their physical condition can be alleviated, the use of their once-non-functioning limbs restored. In Victoria Arlen's case, her medical documents were recently released to five medical experts all of whom concluded "there is insufficient evidence to show she had a permanent impairment".

Ms. Arlen was ruled eligible to compete in the 2012 London Paralympic Games. There she won medals in four races. After those games, the IPC made a request for a more in-depth medical report on her impaired condition, within a year's time. Last month the report was received and circulated to the five medical experts who then rendered their separate opinions, all of which reflected one the other.

She was recently a runner-up for Best Female Athlete with a Disability at the ESPN ESPYs awards show. She had been paralyzed from the waist down seven years earlier as a result of being diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder of the spinal cord. Her condition, transverse myelitis, placed her in a coma for almost two years. She uses a wheelchair. And at the age of 16 resumed competitive swimming.

She considers herself to be disabled. She harbours no expectations that her condition will undergo any change in the near future. And she is devastated with the decision by the IPC not to permit her to compete in this week's Paralympic World Swimming Championships. She had already arrived in Montreal for the event when she was informed that she was deemed by the IPC to be ineligible to compete.

"Nobody should have to go through this", she said in a Facebook statement. She hopes such a situation does not happen to anyone else. In the opinion of many, including the governor of New Hampshire the last minute ban is "unconscionable and patently unfair". A statement that any reasonable person would have to emphatically agree with.

 

Paralympian swimmer Victoria Arlen arrives at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday, July 17, 2013, at Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)