The other day, I was mindlessly scrolling through TikTok when I came across a video of an athlete gliding through the water to the sound of Dory’s “Just Keep Swimming” from Finding Nemo. I didn’t think much of it until the athlete slammed his head against the pool wall to a cartoon-like sound effect. Then I noticed he had no arms, and then I realized who posted it: the official Paralympics TikTok account.
I was flabbergasted, to say the least, because it just felt…wrong? But a quick scroll through the Paralympics profile revealed just how unserious most of its content is—and how much people on the app genuinely enjoy and can learn from it. (For example, it’s totally normal for Para swimmers with a limb difference to bump their heads on the wall to clock their time and finish their race.) One video shows an athlete who has only his right leg competing in a long jump event to an edited version of the hip hop song “Right Foot Creep.” “This is uncalled for, but made my day,” one user commented. Another TikTok shows an athlete with dwarfism screaming as she throws the heavy metal ball during her shot put event as the “Squirrels in My Pants” song plays in the background. “This account is so out of pocket,” someone wrote, “and I love it.”
You might assume that some super-online Zoomer is the mastermind behind this account. But it’s actually a group of four 20- to 30-something-year-olds—three of whom have disabilities, including two former Paralympians—who are passionate about providing the exposure to Parasport that they didn’t have as kids, according to Craig Spence, chief brand and communications officer of the International Paralympic Committee, and who helps shape the videos’ content strategy.
So after successfully tracking the team behind the account down, I immediately asked what we’re all thinking: How are you getting away with this…and why is it working?!
“We realized that our content had to be really edgy in order to get the engagement. Now, you have a lot of people on there saying, ‘I don’t know whether I should laugh at this, and if I do laugh, do I go to hell,’” Spence tells SELF with a chuckle. “Our content is edgy, it’s borderline, but we’ve got the balance right I believe.”
Much of the account’s success stems from the fact that it doesn’t sugarcoat anything about what it’s like being a disabled athlete—the good, the bad, and the hella funny. “Just because people have a disability doesn’t mean they don’t have a sense of humor, you know what I mean?” Spence says. “So as long as we’re laughing with the athletes as opposed to at them,” then there’s no need to repent your sins everytime a video has you giggling to yourself.
One TikTok shows US Paralympic triathlon athlete Brad Snyder, who is blind, reaching his hands out in front of him as he attempts to find his bike until his guide redirects him; the content team added a sound bite from Beethoven over the video “because it actually does look like he’s playing the piano,” Spence says, adding that Snyder shared the video and agreed with the accurate portrayal of what it’s like to be blind. “The content is engaging and educating people about the challenges that our athletes are facing, not just when they’re doing sport, but in their everyday lives” as well.