| Howard County officials discuss how wheelchair racer will be scored | April 20, 2006
By BEN NUCKOLS,
Associated Press | | | | As a wheelchair athlete prepared to compete yesterday alongside able-bodied high school runners for the first time, Howard County athletics officials scrambled to decide how her race times would be counted. |
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Tatyana McFadden, 16, a sophomore at Atholton High School, sued the county school system in federal court in Baltimore for the right to race at the same time as able-bodied athletes. She had been forced to compete in separate wheelchair events, usually by herself.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Andre Davis granted McFadden's request for a temporary injunction against the school system. His decision allowed her to compete in the same races as her teammates and competitors from rival schools for the rest of the year.
McFadden has spina bifida and her legs are paralyzed. She won a silver medal in the 100 meters and a bronze in the 200 meters at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens.
Over middle and long distances, McFadden builds up speed and can propel her wheelchair much faster than girls her age can run.
She did not ask the judge to compete directly against other athletes. But the county school system's athletics coordinator, Mike Williams, initially decided that her times would count as if she were just another runner.
That was a shock to McFadden, who sought only to race alongside her peers, not to be counted as finishing first in races her competitors would otherwise win, said her mother, Deborah McFadden.
"She never started this to hurt her team or her team members," Deborah McFadden said. "She said this morning, 'Mom, the school system's not playing fair."'
Conference call
After a conference call yesterday afternoon with Davis, the McFaddens' attorneys and school system representatives, the school system abandoned the plan to count Tatyana's scores as if she were a runner, Deborah McFadden said.
"She will run today with everybody, but she will take no slots away and take no points away," Deborah McFadden said. She said school officials apparently misunderstood the judge's ruling.
"This is the same thing that was ruled in court," McFadden said. "Nothing changed in the conference call."
Williams was not immediately available to confirm the change in the scoring policy. His secretary said he was on his way to the track meet.
Tatyana McFadden was expected to compete late yesterday in 200-, 400-, 800- and 1,600-meter events in a three-team meet at Long Reach High School in Columbia.
"We were told by the judge a wheelchair is not an aid, and we can't keep her separate from everybody else, so she's eligible to score points," Williams told The Washington Post for a story in yesterday's editions. "If she wins four events, then her team gets 40 points."
Scot Hollonbeck, the track chairman for Wheelchair Track & Field USA, part of a national governing body for wheelchair sports, said it would be unprecedented for McFadden's times to be counted as if she were a runner. He said some states, including Oregon and Minnesota, allow wheelchair athletes to compete in the same heats as runners, but their scores are counted separately.
"This would be a first, for the state of Maryland to consider a wheelchair a runner, which is essentially what they're doing," Hollonbeck said.
New guidelines
In response to Tatyana McFadden's situation, Wheelchair Track & Field USA this week developed new guidelines clarifying that runners and wheelchair racers should never compete directly against each other in terms of scoring, even when they race on a track at the same time.
"Running and wheeling are two separate disciplines. Athletes compete autonomously within their respective disciplines for times and scoring, even if they are in a mixed heat," the guidelines state.
"There currently have not been any nationally accepted guidelines, and I think that's part of the problem," Hollonbeck explained. "I think a lot of times the school systems aren't sure what to do."
Deborah McFadden said Davis made it clear that his injunction was not meant to force school officials to count Tatyana's times against those of runners.
"We never asked for the scoring," McFadden said. "The judge specifically asked us in the meeting, 'Is this a suit about scoring?' and I said, 'No."'
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