U.S. Paralympian Says She Was 'Verbally Accosted' And Bullied After Winning Silver Medal

Paralympic swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley has spoken out about being bullied and having her disability questioned in the wake of her silver medal win last week.

Its so great that I just broke a world record and won my first Paralympic medal on the same day, the athlete said, according to USA Today . But I got off a bus and got verbally accosted by another athlete from another country.

To be told online by all of these bullies that Im somehow not as disabled as I appear just because I can swim faster than them is pretty devastating, she added.

The 37-year-old started her Paralympics career on Thursday by setting a world record in a heat of the 50-meter freestyle S9 race with a time of 27.28.

In the final later that day, which combined swimmers in both the S9 and S10 classifications, she finished second to Chinas Yi Chen, who took gold with a 27.10 swim. 

Her happy moment was dampened by negative comments on social media casting doubt on her disability, including from several fellow athletes. Multiple other Paralympians have since jumped to her defense.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committee said last week it was looking into the matter immediately. Raleigh Crossley said she also met with officials overseeing athlete safety in the Paralympic Village.

Para swimming uses classifications to categorize competitors based on their type and degree of impairment. Its been criticized as an imperfect system where the lines can sometimes blur. 

The classes from S1 to S10 are for athletes with physical impairments competing in freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events. The lower the number, the more severe the impairment. 

Raleigh Crossley, a former Florida State University swimmer who dreamed of competing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was in a car accident caused by a drunken driver in 2007, leaving her with spinal issues.

The following year, she suffered brain injuries when she was hit by a car as a pedestrian.

A decade later, she suffered a blow to the head with ice during a snowball fight with her son. The incident led to the discovery of a tumor in her brain. She has paralysis on her left side as a result of the series of accidents.

The New Jersey mom of three opened up to Today.com  last week about her journey to the Paralympics, describing how Ive dealt with bullying because Im not missing limbs or because people think I dont look disabled.

She hopes to raise awareness to redefine what a Paralympian looks like.

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. There is a spectrum of what makes someone eligible and there are many athletes who are missing out because they just dont know, she said. I want to help kids, the next generation of Paralympians, to embrace their sport.