American Paralympic swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley set a world record in her Paralympic Games debut in Paris on Thursday.
The 37-year-old from Tom’s River, New Jersey, clocked 27.28 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle in the S9 category, which includes athletes with weakness, loss of limbs or coordination difficulties, breaking the previous record.
But then she went on social media.
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Crossley told reporters Thursday that she had received a torrent of comments and messages on social media accusing her of faking her disability.
“I went from having a world record to feeling absolutely devastated that the whole world seemed 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.
Crossley suffered a neck and back injury in 2007 after being struck by a drunk driver, then a brain injury in 2008 while she was a pedestrian in a hit-and-run, according to her official Team USA profile. Then in 2018, she was paralyzed on her left side due to bleeding from a previously unknown blood tumor in her brain.
She was previously training to compete as an Olympic swimmer, but injuries put that dream out of reach. She decided to compete at the 2024 Paralympics after watching the Tokyo 2021 edition. She joined para-swimming the following year and says she has faced questions about her disability ever since.
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Silver medalist Christie Raleigh-Crossley of Team USA reacts after the Women’s 50m Freestyle S10 Final on day one of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympics at Paris La Défense Arena on August 29, 2024 in Nanterre, France. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
“It’s pretty devastating to have all these bullies online tell me that I’m not disabled like I look, just because I can swim faster than them,” Crossley said. “My family sees my disability every day and what it takes away from our family life, what it takes away from me as a human being, as a woman, and it’s pretty horrific.”
After setting the world record and returning to the athletes’ village, she had just hours to prepare for the 50-metre freestyle final in her category. The accusations and hateful comments weighed on her, but she returned to La Défense Arena that evening to try to win a medal. Crossley won silver, just behind China’s Chen Yi, who broke the world record in the women’s 50-metre freestyle S10.
In a personal essay published on Today.com on Friday, Crossley said she didn’t even know she was eligible for the Paralympics until she decided to enter.
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Christie Raleigh-Crossley of Team USA competes in the Women’s 50m Freestyle – S10 Final on day one of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympics at Paris La Défense Arena on August 29, 2024 in Nanterre, France. (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“I didn’t know I was eligible for the Paralympics. I had no idea what the requirements were. It’s not that I was hesitant to participate in Paralympic sports; I just didn’t know it was an option. It was a lack of knowledge, which I think is the case for many athletes who have suffered life-changing injuries,” she wrote.
Crossley also claims she did not want to reveal beforehand how critical her condition was, but that it had had a serious impact on her lifestyle.
“To be honest, I also didn’t want to admit the severity of my disability. I had muscle spasms and immobility on my left side, and I tried to hide it,” she wrote. “Although I am in my wheelchair every day, I sometimes walk with crutches on my forearms if my muscles are not as spastic, but it still puts a lot of strain on my body.”
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