US Paralympic swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley faces online bullying after setting record

Christie Raleigh-Crossley of Team United States with her silver medal from the women's 50m freestyle S10 final at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Photo / Getty Images

A few minutes after American swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley set a world record in her Paralympics debut Thursday, torching the competition in her 50m freestyle S9 preliminary heat, the 37-year-old could not stop smiling. “I just want to have fun and take it all in,” she told reporters with a giggle before boarding a bus back to the athlete’s village, where she had about six hours to kill before she swam in today’s final.

But Raleigh Crossley said, during her wait, she encountered controversial comments posted on social media questioning her disability, including from a US teammate and a competitor from another country. She said she met with officials overseeing athletes’ safety at the village to address the issue before returning to La Defence Arena to compete, where she finished with a silver medal behind China’s Chen Yi, who broke the world record for the women’s 50m freestyle S10.

“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 after the final, her voice quivering and tears welling in her eyes.

The controversy cast a shadow over a day when the Americans won their first three medals of these Paralympics in the pool, where the athletes are classified into three categories: physical, visual and intellectual. Raleigh Crossley, who has faced questions about her disability since joining Para swimming in 2022, has a neurological condition classified as S9, where she competes against other swimmers with similar impairments.

Raleigh Crossley, a New Jersey native, suffered neck and back injuries after being hit by a drunk driver in 2007 and a brain injury after a crash the following year. In 2018, she experienced paralysis on her left side due to the bleeding of a previously unknown blood tumour in her brain, according to her Team USA profile.

For years, even after her injuries, she pursued her dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer, which ended when the tumour was removed from her brain. After watching the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, she was inspired to begin competing in Para swimming and set her first American record in the sport in 2022.

Last night marked a continuation of “bullying” she has endured over the past two years since pursuing the Paralympics, she said.

“To be told online by all of these bullies that I am not somehow disabled, just because I can swim faster than them, it’s pretty devastating,” Raleigh 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.”

Raleigh Crossley declined to identify the athletes who made the online comments about her disability Thursday, but said the teammate who did so was a “prominent member of Team USA who has come after me the hardest”.

“It’s just absolutely disgusting,” she said. “They say that they want to be a role model for the future generations, yet when a new athlete comes in, to treat them that way, you’re saying those words for a soundbite.”

Kate Hartman, a spokeswoman for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said it was “looking into this matter immediately”.

“We take all matters of bullying, harassment, and abuse with the utmost seriousness,” Hartman said in a statement. “Every athlete deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, and we are committed to fostering an atmosphere that not only encourages excellence in competition but also prioritises mental and emotional wellbeing.”

The tension could be felt among Raleigh Crossley’s competitors today, where Yi set the S10 record at 27.10. Raleigh Crossley finished at 27.38 for silver, while Canada’s Aurelie Rivard took home bronze at 27.62. Rivard, one of the sport’s most decorated swimmers who has won five gold medals over four Paralympics, is competing against Raleigh Crossley for the first time at the Games.

“I heard about what’s going on and I hope that she is what she says she is, and I hope she deserves her place in the class and on the podium,” Rivard said. “We have to trust our system. Hopefully it works.”

Raleigh Crossley has three more days of events left in Paris and will be a medal contender in each: the 100m free, 100m backstroke and the 100m butterfly. But she could hardly talk about her performance today, let alone look ahead.

She choked up when she met with reporters after winning her first medal. She couldn’t celebrate the silver or her world record because of what had happened online, she said. After about five minutes, she ended her interview to go visit her children.

“When I say that I want to change, for the better, the future of the Paralympic movement, I mean removing this toxic environment,” she said. “It’s been a pretty awful day.”