American Paralympic swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley set a world record in her Paralympics debut in Paris on Thursday.
The 37-year-old Tom's River, New Jersey native posted a 27.28-second time in the 50-meter freestyle for the S9 class, which includes athletes with weakness, limb loss or coordination difficulties, torching the previous record.
But then she went on social media.
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Crossley told reporters on Thursday that she had received a torrent of comments and messages on social media that accused her of faking her disability.
"I went from enjoying a world record to being utterly devastated that the entire world seems to think I was a cheater and that I was somehow faking the hole in my brain and the cyst in my spinal cord," she said.
Crossley sustained a neck and back injury in 2007 after being hit by a drunk driver, and then a brain injury in 2008 as a pedestrian in a hit-and-run, according to her official Team USA profile. Then in 2018, she experienced paralysis on her left side due to the bleeding of a previously unknown blood tumor in her brain.
She was previously training to compete as an Olympic swimmer, but her injuries put that dream out of reach. She decided to pursue the 2024 Paralympics after watching the Tokyo edition in 2021. She joined para-swimming the following year, and she claims that she has faced questions about her disability ever since.
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"To be told online by all of these bullies that I am not somehow disabled as I appear, just because I can swim faster than them, it’s pretty devastating," Crossley said. "Because my family witnesses my disability every day and what it takes away from our family life, what it takes away from me as a human, as a woman, and it’s been pretty awful."
After setting the world record and returning to the athletes village, she had just hours to prepare for the 50-meter freestyle final in her class. The accusations and hate comments weighed on her, but she returned to La Defense Arena that evening for a chance at a medal. Crossley won silver, just behind China’s Chen Yi, who broke the world record for the women’s 50-meter freestyle S10.
In a personal essay posted to Today.com on Friday, Crossley claimed that she didn't even know she was eligible for the Paralympics prior to her decision to pursue it.
"I didn’t know that I was eligible for the Paralympics. I had no idea what the requirements were. It wasn’t that I was hesitant to get into Paralympic sports; I just wasn’t aware it was an option. It was a lack of knowledge, which I think is the case for many athletes who have sustained life-changing injuries," she wrote.
Crossley also claims that she previously did not want to reveal how critical her conditions actually were, but that they have severely impacted her lifestyle.
"If I’m being honest, I also didn’t want to admit to the depth of my disability. I had muscle spasms and immobility on my left side, and I tried to hide it," she wrote. "Although I’m in my wheelchair every day, sometimes I walk with forearm crutches if my muscles aren’t as spastic, but it still puts a heavy strain on my body."
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