American Paralympic swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley set a world record in her Paralympic debut in Paris on Thursday.
The 37-year-old Tom's River, New Jersey, native clocked a time of 27.28 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle for the S9 class, which includes athletes with weakness, limb loss or coordination difficulties, breaking the previous record.
But then she took to social media.
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Crossley told reporters on Thursday that she had received a torrent of comments and messages on social media accusing her of faking her disability.
“I went from enjoying a world record to being completely devastated because everyone seemed to think I was a cheater and that I was somehow faking the hole in my brain and the cyst on my spinal cord,” she said.
Crossley suffered a neck and back injury in 2007 after being hit by a drunk driver, and then a brain injury in 2008 as a pedestrian in a hit-and-run accident, according to her official Team USA profile. Then, in 2018, she suffered paralysis 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 her injuries prevented her from achieving that dream. She decided to enter the 2024 Paralympics after watching the Tokyo edition in 2021. She joined Paralympic swimming the following year and says she has faced questions about her disability ever since.
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Silver medallist Christie Raleigh-Crossley of Team USA reacts after the women's 50m freestyle S10 final on day one of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Arena Paris La Defense on August 29, 2024 in Nanterre, France. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
“To have all these online bullies tell me that I'm not a disabled person like I look, just because I can swim faster than them, is pretty devastating,” Crossley said. “Because my family witnesses 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 been pretty horrific.”
After setting the world record and returning to the Olympic village, she had just hours to prepare for the women's 50m freestyle final. Accusations and hateful comments weighed on her, but she returned to La Defense Arena that night for a chance to win a medal. Crossley won silver, just behind China's Chen Yi, who broke the women's 50m freestyle S10 world record.
In a personal essay published on Today.com on Friday, Crossley said she didn't even know she was eligible for the Paralympics before making the decision to do so.
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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 Paralympic Games at Arena Paris La Defense 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 wasn't 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 says he previously did not want to reveal how critical his conditions really were, but that they have severely affected his 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 a wheelchair every day, I sometimes walk with forearm crutches if my muscles are not so spastic, but it still puts a lot of strain on my body.”
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