Paralympic athletes are deliberately exaggerating their impairments in a bid to win medals, a Four Corners investigation has found.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the scandal, the former head of the world governing body for Paralympic sport said it threatened the credibility of the Games.
"I cannot say that this doesn't exist. It exists," said Xavier Gonzalez, who led the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) from 2004 to 2019.
The Paralympic Games are the world's third-biggest sporting event, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue.
Crucial to the competition is a classification system that is meant to level the playing field for athletes with different impairments.
Former athletes and officials have told the ABC's Four Corners that the system of Paralympic classification is flawed and easily manipulated, with growing calls for fundamental reform.
Insiders described a culture where classification rules were regularly bent and broken, with few repercussions for those prepared to exploit a weak system.
"There are still athletes, currently, who are misrepresenting their abilities, not only in this country, but throughout the world," former chief classifier with the IPC and medical director for the Australian Paralympic team Jane Buckley said.
"They are protected."
Mr Gonzalez said the responsibility for enforcing the rules of Paralympic classification should now be taken away from the organisation he led for 15 years.
"We had what is called cheating in classification," Mr Gonzalez said.
"Trying to do things with classification to win an advantage is not a thing that the Paralympic movement can tolerate."
In an IPC document, other high-ranking officials detailed their concerns.
The officials, from around the world, described how "intentional misrepresentation" of disabilities had infected Paralympic sport.
One concluded that, "the system does not work", another said there were "no repercussions for those who cheat".
"Athletes and coaches are aware of this and are using it to their advantage," one official wrote.
Mr Gonzalez said cases of athletes cheating during classification posed a clear threat to the Paralympic brand and a lack of resources made it difficult to address the problem.
"If somebody wants to do it, I'm sure that they can do it," he said.
'I need to look disabled'
Stuart Jones represented Australia in cycling at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympic Games and world championship events in the trike class.
He sustained an incomplete spinal cord injury in 2014 after he clipped a parked car and crashed while riding along a highway.
Despite being told he may never walk again, Jones was eventually back on a two-wheeled bike, racing competitively with local cycling clubs.
In para-cycling, the three-wheeled trike division — which is Jones's class — is strictly reserved for athletes who can't ride a two-wheeled bike because of "a lack of balance and/or severe restrictions in pedalling".
Athletes have a responsibility to know and comply with the rules.
Four Corners has found that, for three years after his injury, Jones raced a two-wheel bike, climbing up the competitive grades in his cycling club, and even winning races.
Despite his skills on the two-wheel bike, Jones began exploring whether he could compete in para-cycling as early as 2015.
His then partner, Sandy Kryzius, said Jones had told her he believed he could win more easily in the three-wheel para-cycling class.
"I said to him, 'Why are you riding this?' And he's like, 'Well it's the only way I can get into para-cycling'. Because the normal bicycle classifications, they were too fast for him."
Jones began racing trikes — and won the para-cycling road nationals in the trike division — in May 2017.
For more than a year, Jones competed in both two and three-wheel events interchangeably. This included racing hundreds of kilometres on his two-wheel bike across at least seven events.
Fellow cycling club member, solicitor Jennifer Short, recalled competing against Jones in late 2017, on a particularly treacherous route.
"Stuart was a very strong rider," Short said. "You have to be able to lay the bike into the corners. You have to be able to get out of the saddle and sprint which, if you have an issue with balance, getting out of the saddle can be problematic."
National cycling body, AusCycling said it was not aware that Jones had raced on a two-wheeled bike in the years after his accident.
Ms Kryzius said she was at a para-cycling event with Jones when she noticed him "putting on a limp".
"I said, 'Are you OK? You're limping'. And, surprisingly, his response was that: 'Oh I'm at para-cycling. I need to look disabled'," Ms Kryzius said.
Ms Kryzius — whose eventual split with Jones was acrimonious — also recalled a meeting with an Australian cycling official who suggested Jones would be offered a spot on the Australian para-cycling team.
"I just said: 'Oh, but Stuart can ride a two-wheeler bike'. And her response, which I remember quite clearly, was, 'No, he can't'. And then Stuart kind of indicated to me, you know, "Stop talking".
"It definitely had to be a secret within the para-cycling community."
AusCycling said it rejected any suggestion that current or former staff, or athletes, would undermine fairness in classification.
Jones didn't win medals in Tokyo, but he did receive an award for sportsmanship.
He did not respond to questions from Four Corners.
His lawyer said it wouldn't be appropriate to comment because of ongoing defamation proceedings dealing with similar allegations.
A court heard that Stuart Jones switched to para-cycling after having several accidents while attempting to ride a two-wheel bike.
'More concerned about medals'
During classification, Paralympians are assessed and divided into classes based on how their impairment affects their performance.
While no two disabilities are the same, there's a clear advantage for those who end up competing against athletes with more significant impairments than their own.
This is the big taboo of Paralympic sport: A system that creates an incentive to underperform — or even exaggerate — a disability.
Ms Buckley said she was shocked by the level of cheating that occurred when athletes were classified.
"The level of misrepresentation that started to take place after 2009 was quite mind-blowing in some sports and particularly … swimming," Ms Buckley said.
Speaking about this issue publicly for the first time, Ms Buckley said that, for certain classes, misrepresentation had become "almost like an inside joke" within the Paralympic movement.
Ms Buckley said a number of times she faced resistance from national and international sporting bodies when she tried to enforce the rules, particularly if the outcome did not favour an athlete with strong medal prospects.
"I was told to turn a blind eye, to let it go."
She said she tried to raise the alarm, taking her concerns to top officials with the Australian Paralympic Committee (now Paralympics Australia), but said the Australian governing body was reluctant to take action against team members who were accused of cheating.
"I can remember thinking at the time, 'Oh my goodness, this organisation is more concerned about medals than doing the right thing'."
Paralympics Australia said in a statement that it never condoned cheating and had no knowledge of misconduct related to classification.
'Everybody does that'
Moving from one class to another can make or break a Paralympic career.
If an athlete appears more impaired when they are being classified, they will compete against athletes with more significant impairments.
"It is very easy to exaggerate in a classification," four-time Paralympic gold medallist Maddison Elliott said.
"There are people who are just doing it because they're not winning in their classification, they want to compete in a classification that they can win in," Elliott said.
Former athletes told Four Corners they were instructed to fatigue themselves before classification.
"You are taught to exert yourself and be fatigued and, I guess, be the worst version of yourself at the time," said Amanda Fraser, who has represented Australia in swimming and athletics at multiple games.
Asked if this was cheating, Fraser answered, "Probably".
"Everybody does that. I think it's kind of just accepted, I guess. I think that, with cerebral palsy, it's very easy to do."
"But, obviously, [with] a person like me, I'm always going to try and be the best that I can be."
Fraser's one-time competitor, Rebecca Chin, competed at the Beijing games, for Great Britain.
She had a relatively minor impairment of hyper flexible ankles.
During classification for the games, the then-16-year-old was told she had cerebral palsy, and was moved to a more impaired class.
"In hindsight, there's no reason for me to think I have cerebral palsy," Chin said.
Chin won silver in the discus, but was stripped of her medal. She'd been wrongly classified and was disqualified.
She said she was also told to fatigue herself by exercising before classification.
"Looking back, it is so frustrating because I know that that is not how you're supposed to conduct yourself," she said.
"All I knew was what I was told by people who I was looking up to at the time. People who were in charge.
"I still don't believe that I cheated. I was badly led."
The IPC did not clarify whether athletes were banned from fatiguing before classification, but said the practice can trigger an investigation.
Athletics Australia said it was not aware of any cases, either current or historical, of athletes, coaches or staff involved in any classification misconduct.
UK Athletics said it always operated at the highest possible standards to ensure that athletes were supported to be correctly, fairly and accurately classified in line with international rules.
'I'm very perplexed'
Australian gold medallist Amanda Fowler has become a controversial figure in Paralympic sport. Her career was intensely scrutinised after she switched sports and classifications several times.
She was investigated by the IPC in 2016 over allegations of intentional misrepresentation.
However, it did not find conclusive evidence to substantiate the claims.
Fowler began her decorated sporting career as a non-disabled speed skater.
As a child, she won national titles. Then, in her early teens, she moved to para-sport.
Fowler represented Australia's national Paralympic squad, as an intellectually impaired swimmer in 2011.
"She never said anything about having other disabilities to me in the time that I was friends with her," fellow swimmer Elliott said.
Fowler failed to win a medal at the 2012 London Games and, three years later, she was competing in athletics, in a class for people with vision impairments.
Elliott was surprised to see Fowler with a white cane.
"Unless she had a deteriorating disease that we knew nothing about, we only knew her as the intellectual athlete," Elliott said.
By 2016, Fowler changed her name to Amanda Reid. She no longer used a white cane, and was classed as a physically impaired swimmer with cerebral palsy.
Reid's former coach, Simon Watkins, wrote to Swimming Australia, about her classification changes.
"My worry is that this completely devalues the classification system … and makes the country a joke in the international scene," he wrote.
Swimming Australia would not comment on Amanda Reid's classification.
Reid changed sport again, and won gold at the Tokyo Games as a physically impaired cyclist with cerebral palsy.
One of the IPC's most-experienced classifiers, who headed the Paralympics' cerebral palsy sports advisory group, told Four Corners he had classified thousands of cerebral palsy athletes, and had never seen a case like Reid's in his career.
Ken Richter — who also specialises in rehabilitation medicine — watched footage of Reid's presentations throughout the years.
"Cerebral palsy is a stable motor disease originating in the brain that occurs around birth, and it's non-progressive. It doesn't go in and out, in and out," Professor Richter said.
He said he could not be certain about Amanda Reid's diagnosis without examining her.
However, Professor Richter said, the circumstances around her classification changes were concerning.
"I'm very perplexed," he said. "I haven't seen in my career somebody with a stable neurologic condition that gives such a fluctuating performance. I would love to see the reasoning of the classifiers that classified her."
Four Corners was not able to speak to Amanda Reid, nor confirm if she fully understood the rules of classification and, without seeing her medical records, cannot confirm exactly what her impairments are.
It is possible that Reid has multiple impairments, including cerebral palsy.
Reid’s lawyer told Four Corners that it had been provided with information that was not supported by fact.
The IPC said it was not uncommon for athletes to change classes.
AusCycling said it was provided Amanda Reid's medical records to ensure that she was classified correctly.
Paralympics Australia said it was satisfied that all requirements relating to Reid's international classification had been followed.
Calls for independent classification body
Mr Gonzalez said the IPC did attempt to curb cheating when he was in charge.
In 2016, it investigated more than 80 athletes for intentional misrepresentation: No one was reprimanded.
The IPC said there was not enough evidence to prove wrongdoing.
Mr Gonzalez now wants an independent organisation to police classification in Paralympic sport, a move the IPC says is unnecessary.
The body is currently reviewing the classification system but some, such as Ms Buckley, are concerned it will not go far enough.
"The doping situation, the Olympics do not monitor that. That is an independent body," Ms Buckley said.
"To be truly serious about this, there should be independence … checks and balances.
"There is a problem. Shine a bit of light on it and let's do something about it."
Watch Four Corners' full investigation into the Paralympics on ABC iview.
