Para chief condemns online racial abuse of Irish swimmer
Sixth Deaten Breaststroke Finishing 100m Final Sb14 Ireland’s Men's Inpho/tom In Registe Pic: The Maher After
Paralympics Ireland CEO Stephen McNamara has condemned the online racial abuse directed at swimmer Deaten Registe.
The 20-year-old, who has an intellectual impairment, recorded a PB to finish sixth in the SB14 100m breaststroke final last Monday.
“That is the equality we don’t want. It happens in all sport, it happened in the Olympic cycle with some athletes, and it has happened now with Deaten,” McNamara said of the race-related online abuse directed at the swimmer.
“I think the reality is, and I think Irish people would support this, we want those athletes, they represent us, we don't want these keyboard warriors, they don't represent us.
“Ireland is having a really difficult time at the moment in relation to that, and it is happening all across Europe as well in terms of the voices that are coming through social media. I think social media companies should do more.
“When an athlete at a Paralympic Games, that just happens to have a different skin tone to maybe the rest of the population that this person lives with, becomes a target of their ire, it is just not acceptable. Everybody in Ireland would support that.
“These things self-correct a lot on social media, you’ll have one person saying one negative thing and 10 or 100 people coming in supporting the athlete. Obviously through the duty of care, we have spoken to the athlete and the athlete’s family, and we don't want that to happen again.
“But ultimately, we can’t guarantee it won't happen again. But what we have seen across the whole Games is such a huge swell of support for all of our athletes that that is something that is part of the Games but not the focus of the Games.”