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The cheats who won gold and left a devastating legacy for learning disability sport

The cheats who won gold and left a devastating legacy for learning disability sport.

British swimmer Dan Pepper says he was destroyed by the ban on intellectual impairment sports at the Paralympics – it ruined his career. The ban was imposed after Spain won basketball gold at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics with a squad of 12 in which - it later emerged - only two players were genuinely disabled. In The Fake Paralympians, Dan sets out to find the truth about what happened and its devastating impact on learning disability sport.

Image credit: EPA

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The Fake Paralympians: 2. Caught

24/08/2021 GMT

2. Caught

BBC World Service - The Fake Paralympians, 2. Caught

Some of the gold-medal-winning team are recognised back home - and they're not disabled

A photo of the gold-medal-winning team appears in a newspaper back in Spain. Some of the players are recognised by people who know them - and they're not disabled.

A basketball journalist in Spain recognises three of the players in the gold-medal-winning intellectual disability basketball team - and they are not disabled. He has even played on the same team as one of them. But when he publishes his story in a national basketball magazine, the team’s organisers show certificates supposedly proving the players’ disability status.

The denials continue until another of the players - who turns out to have been a journalist - publishes his own article exposing the fraud. It causes a media storm in Spain and around the world. The Spanish Paralympic Committee begins an investigation and the consequences for the genuinely-disabled captain Ray are devastating.

Presenter: Dan Pepper
Series Producer: Simon Maybin

(Photo credit: EPA)

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