I see where Mikey Brannigan has been nominated as male paralympic athlete of the year. I want to preface this stating that Mikey is a great runner, and I'd consider him elite by any standard; he has an inspiring story; he helps to show the benefits running can have in all aspects of life for autistic individuals.
However, I have a hard time with the classification as a paralympic athlete. I understand it's a category at the event, and he deserves credit for running and competing extremely well in that category. However, in my admittedly limited experience, for many autistic individuals there is no physical impediment to their ability to train or race, and at times their ability to focus and train is actually enhanced. If there are other insights into this, I'd love to read them, as I'm far from an expert.
Recognizing that my impression may be wrong, I have a hard time getting that pumped about a category of running at the paralympics where I don't see the disability having a significant ability on their performance. They clearly overcome a lot of obstacles in their lives, and maybe that's the greatest accomplishment, but from a competitive capability standpoint, are athletes like Brannigan at a significant disadvantage relative to other athletes?