Have you ever heard of Noah Lyles, LeBron James, Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles or Sophia Smith? 

If you haven’t, I can’t even say you live under a rock because an underground ant has definitely heard of them; you’re probably in a faraway galaxy. 

But, in case you are actually reading this from a faraway galaxy — howdy, aliens! — these individuals led Team USA to a historic Olympic campaign in their respective sports, each gaining a gold medal, sometimes multiple. One even created and maintained beef with other Team USA athletes, possibly playing a role in why the American men’s basketball team won gold. These athletes’ popularity was already through the roof before the Olympic Games and skyrocketed even more as the events went on. 

Now that I’ve brought our extraterrestrial friends up to date, I have to say this edition of the Olympics was electrifying. From the headlining events like track and field and swimming to the below-the-line events of judo and fencing, there just seemed to be much buzz around the games. Athletes’ achievements can lead them to gain so much popularity from these events like Stephen Nedoroscik, Ilona Maher and everyone who competed in the shooting competition. 

But have you heard of Steve Serio? Maybe Nick Mayhugh? Or maybe even Jamal Hill? If you haven’t, you aren’t living in a faraway galaxy; these names have barely been uttered amongst social media and online forums even though they are representing Team USA in the 2024 Paris Paralympics. And they are headlining some of the biggest events in the tournament. 

Did you even know that the Paralympics are taking place right now? I don’t blame you if you didn’t, I wouldn’t have either if I wasn’t chronically online, and even then I’ve only seen about three to four posts about it since the games started. 

Now, this begs the question: Why aren’t we excited and watching the Paralympics? It can’t be because we don’t like sports; we’ve seen how crazy our nation goes for sporting events. Or is it because, maybe, we don’t consider people with disabilities to be at the same level as other able-bodied athletes?

Well, you might be ableist.

Swimmer Trisha Zorn has the most medals out of anyone in the Paralympics and Olympics, with a stunning 55 medals across seven competitions — anyone who comes close to that on the Olympic side is swimmer Michael Phelps, with 28 total medals. If you were to go up to someone on the street and ask them who Zorn is, they would go blank, but they would definitely know who Phelps is. 

Why is that?

Society has tolerated the bias against not only disabled athletes, but disabled people in general, and that is unfair to everyone involved. These athletes train every day, the same as able-bodied athletes, and put in the same effort as they do to be the best at their sport. 

Before you say, “Oh, it’s not the same level of competition they are competing at; LeBron James would always beat a wheelchair basketball athlete.” Well, they’re still competing. And at their competitions, they’re the best they can be. If you wanted to find a doctor in your area, you wouldn’t compare the ratings to other lawyers in your area. So, go watch and support them!

And before you complain about the number of events you would have to rewatch at the Paralympics, there are actually only 22 sports featured at the 2024 Paralympics compared to 45 sports featured at the 2024 Olympics, and there are 549 medal events in the Paralympics compared to 329 medal events at the Olympics. In other words, more love to go around with less of a time commitment!

So, the next time you think about disregarding these fantastic athletes, let me remind you: They are probably faster, stronger and better than you at what they do. Just because they have a disability does not make them any less worthy of our time. 

The Paralympics end Sept. 8. If you don’t have anything better to do — you don’t — tune in and support these athletes as they chase their dreams for gold. 

Joshua Abraham is a kinesiology junior and opinion writer for The Battalion.