The Paralympic scandal that saw four US Paralympians miss the closing ceremony

Team USA took third place in the Paralympic medal table, with Christie Raleigh Crossley as one of the great swimming stars of the Paralympics. Unfortunately, she fell victim to damaging comments from some fellow Americans.

After 12 days of hard-fought competition, Team USA's Paralympic team gathered with the rest of the world for the Paralympic Games closing ceremony on September 8th.

However, four notable athletes from the USA team were not at the closing occasion after being barred from attending as part of a punishment issued by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

The USOPC banned Jessica Long, Gia Pergolini, Julia Gaffney, and Anastasia Pagonis for comments that questioned their teammate's disability at the Games.

According to the Washington Post, the penalties, pending appeal, would also levy suspensions barring the athletes from competing for the national team next spring and ban them from participating in Team USA's celebratory trip to D.C. this year.

A USOPC spokesperson said: "We can confirm that sanctions have been imposed on several athletes due to unacceptable behaviour." They added: "It is important to uphold the standards expected of Team USA athletes, and we remain committed to addressing any actions that undermine our values."

The punishment stems from comments made about U.S. swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley, who suffers from a neurological condition and competes in the S9 category.

Her four teammates took aim at her on an Instagram post that celebrated Crossley's world record-setting 50-metre freestyle swim on August 29th.

The NY Post reports that Spanish swimmer Sarai Gascon Moreno commented, "S9? It's a joke?" Jessica Long replied, "I stand with you."

Long, who secured two gold medals in Paris, is a six-time Paralympian who won her first medal at the 2004 Games in Athens. She is the face of U.S. Paralympic swimming and has been an outspoken critic of the classification system. She has 18 career gold medals.

Paris bronze medalist Julia Gaffney went after Crossley in a separate post, saying, "Not a positive impact. Intentional misrepresentation is never cute."

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

Anastasia Pagonis said "this" with a raising hand emoji, and gold medallist Gia Pergolini wrote, "well said" with a raising hand emoji in the same post.

Crossley, the 37-year-old New Jersey native, who won five medals, including two golds, suffered neck and back injuries after being hit by a drunk driver in 2007. She suffered a brain injury after a crash the following year. In 2018, She suffered paralysis on her left side due to bleeding from a blood tumour, according to her Team USA profile.

Raleigh Crossley addressed the questioning of her disability at the Paris Games: "I went from enjoying a world record to being utterly devastated that the entire world seems to think I was a cheater and that I was somehow faking the hole in my brain and the cyst in my spinal cord."

"To be told online by all of these bullies that I am not somehow disabled as I appear, just because I can swim faster than them, it's pretty devastating."

The four swimmers were notified by email during the final days of the Games that the USOPC's Rules Application Panel would be reviewing allegations that they violated delegation terms.

The email said the athlete's comments to the public violated the "Delegation Terms" of conduct requirements they signed and agreed to follow before the Games, including "respect members of Team USA and the U.S. Delegation to the Games" and "act in a way that will bring respect and honour to yourself, your teammates."

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!