Time to regain Olympic ideals: Letter

Sir: I couldn't agree more with Nick Walker ("Let the disabled join the freak show", 30 July). Why, in an age when we are trying so hard to let everyone have the rights they deserve, do we have a separate Olympic Games for disabled athletes and treat people like second-class citizens because they are not good enough for the "real thing".

The opening ceremony of each Olympic Games is now a massive experiment in manipulation to make us to feel what a wonderful experience we are enjoying with the whole world competing together on "a level playing field". When the whole world includes people who on a daily basis deal with disabilities that would defeat most of the people that are competing at Atlanta why should they be excluded?

The Olympics should be an event where "amateur" sportspeople can enter secure in the knowledge that they are competing in a world arena with the best of their class. I find it difficult to understand how professional teams are acceptable when some of the best "amateur" sportspeople are excluded because they are disabled.

The Olympics are no longer "a level playing field" and we should be trying to regain that ideal and include those who are at the top of their field regardless of their physical abilities or disabilities.

HELEN NOBLE

Bristol