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The Paralympics have for too long been considered the poor cousin of the Olympics. It's always run after the main games and rarely gets anything like the media coverage.

I joke that the Olympics is the warm-up to the Paralympics.

Paralympics has always had to push the media into it being about sport and not focusing on the disability.

The Paralympic Games is about transforming our perception of the world.

Paralympic sport and other disability sport can and should be celebrated in its own right.

I am so proud of being a Paralympian because I think the Games are a very good platform for disabled persons to perform themselves. Within the Paralympics movement, it's not just talk about excellence; it's not just talk about the competition. It's also talk about the equality and how your world accepts those disabled people.

The sentiment of those suggesting the Olympics and Paralympics be combined is no doubt well intentioned. But it also echoes the myth that disabled people want to be other than what we are - that we'd like nothing more than to be 'allowed in' with the able-bodied competitors.

Having loved sport my whole life, competing in a Paralympics would be a dream come true.

I know there's life after the Olympics.

The Olympics: not one of my better memories.