U.S. Paralympian Says She Was 'Verbally Accosted' And Bullied After Winning Silver Medal

Paralympic swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley has spoken out about being bullied and having her disability questioned in the wake of her silver medal win last week.

“It’s so great that I just broke a world record and won my first Paralympic medal on the same day,” the athlete said, according to USA Today. “But I got off a bus and got verbally accosted by another athlete from another country.”

“To be told online by all of these bullies that I’m somehow not as disabled as I appear just because I can swim faster than them is pretty devastating,” she added.

The 37-year-old started her Paralympics career on Thursday by setting a world record in a heat of the 50-meter freestyle S9 race with a time of 27.28.

In the final later that day, which combined swimmers in both the S9 and S10 classifications, she finished second to China’s Yi Chen, who took gold with a 27.10 swim.

Her happy moment was dampened by negative comments on social media casting doubt on her disability, including from several fellow athletes. Multiple other Paralympians have since jumped to her defense.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committee said last week it was looking into the matter immediately. Raleigh Crossley said she also met with officials overseeing athlete safety in the Paralympic Village.

Para swimming uses classifications to categorize competitors based on their type and degree of impairment. It’s been criticized as an imperfect system where the lines can sometimes blur.

The classes from S1 to S10 are for athletes with physical impairments competing in freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events. The lower the number, the more severe the impairment.

Raleigh Crossley, a former Florida State University swimmer who dreamed of