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10th Circuit: Paralympics are not entitled to same support as Olympics

By Rick Karcher, Michael McCann, Geoffrey Rapp, Greg Skidmore, and Howard Wasserman

Alan Milstein of Blog Justice and our blog passes along a note that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has affirmed a district court's dismissal of a claim by a group of Paralympic athletes against the United States Olympic Committee ("USOC"), which is the federally-chartered and taxpayer-funded corporation that has exclusive jurisdiction over U.S. participation in three athletic competitions: the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, and the Pan American Games.

The Paralympic players contended that the USOC offers services and benefits to Olympic team members that they do not offer to Paralympic team members, and their failure to offer those services and benefits was discriminatory under the American with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by Federal agencies, in programs receiving Federal financial assistance, in Federal employment, and in the employment practices of Federal contractors). The court rejected the claims, finding a lack of statutory support. For more, check out the opinion.

For a related post, see Geoff's recent post "The Thorny and Challenging Issue of Disabled Track and Field Athletes."

Full post as published by Sports Law Blog on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).