patronising

...by now I was part of a thinned pack running back on the opposite side of the road to the bulk of the pack on the other side. I had kept pace with the guy in the wheelchair who had overtaken me a little while earlier. He was getting a lot of shouts of encouragement and applause from the main pack. Very nice that he was getting his kudos; but the rest of us in the same part of the field were not. The wheelchair athlete is an athlete. He was dressed and equipped for the event and I am sure he trained for it as hard as I had. Why should there be more support for a wheelchair athlete than for any other athlete? Isn't that just a little patronising? "Ah, look at him trying his best to play with the real people, bless-him." I get the triumph over adversity bit, though for that you have to assume he once had the use of his legs; hardly counts if he has been without use of his legs since birth. If you ask me, and you'll probably not so I'll tell you anyway, he deserves more praise for, say, travelling by train than he does for his impressive athletic ability. People were applauding his disability, not his ability. Am I the only one that finds it patronising? The bit that amused me most; as I ran near this guy we were on a descent section. He was getting applause for rolling down hill! What about me, I was running! Sheesh, c'mon people.