Road to Paris: Scout Bassett Wants to Change How We See Women with Disabilities

SP: Your first Paralympics was Rio (2016). How was that?
SB: It was an amazing experience and just the feeling of competing at the Games is unlike any other feeling of competition.

I made the 100-meter finals, which was a massive goal for me at that time, and I remember the evening of the finals. It was one of the last races of the night. You run the prelim in the morning and then you run the final that evening. So, it's already been the longest day in the world. And I think I was a little emotionally exhausted from the whole experience because we were also at the very end of the Paralympics program.

Tears were just—not bawling, not an ugly cry—but tears were streaming down my face. You never dream and you never think that in your life, the story is going to unfold, at least for me, the way that it did. To come from an orphanage in China and to set this dream of competing at the Paralympics. To be the only American that made the finals was just amazing. The emotions probably felt a little overwhelming. I didn't have the best race in the finals, but that's okay, and finished fifth at those Games. It was an incredible experience.

SP: Did you go to Tokyo?
SB: I did not. Tokyo was delayed a year. So really, it was five years for us. And unfortunately, it was a year that a lot of things went wrong that season—injuries and health stuff—and so, I didn't make the team in ’21.

Scout Bassett received her first prosthetic running blade at age 14.

Camon Dupont

SP: How's training going for Paris?
SB: It's been going really well. I've relocated to Toronto to train with a Paralympic-specific coach and group. And it's been really great. I've never been in a Paralympic training group before, so that's been a new experience for me.

It's really nice to have a coach that has spent a lot of time working with Paralympic athletes. We have a layer of equipment, of movements with the body that don't work the same way that a non-disabled athlete is dealing with. So just to have his expertise of knowing what movements, what exercises are actually productive and useful for really getting the maximum performance out of not only my prosthetic, but of the body that I have, it's been really vital.

SP: For your events, the 100-meter, is that for athletes with one or two prosthetics? How is it classified?
SB: In our 100-meter event, we have both above-knee amputees like myself, and then we have a class of people that are not amputees at all. So they don't have a prosthetic. But they have limited range of motion in one leg.

SP: Oh, okay. That's…interesting?
SB: Yeah, not the same thing. [Laughs] Missing a leg is quite different than having a leg and maybe not having full range of motion. So it's a little bit difficult for viewers. Because when you watch the race, you see people that don't have prosthetics, and you're kind of confused like, “How is this a fair race?” And so there's a little bit of a challenge currently with that, and in trying to really make the events a little bit more fair in terms of equal impairment right now.

This is also the unfortunate side of the women's [events]. There's a lot more groupings like that on the women's side. On the men's side, they're separated.

SP: Is it a numbers thing in terms of people in the events?
SB: Yes. There's not enough of a certain class, so they say, “Alright, we’re just gonna group you with the other group.” And it's not the same impairment. So as a result, the girls that don't wear prosthetics are much more competitive.

SP: Earlier, you talked about partially growing up in an orphanage and then coming all this way to make it to the Paralympics, and to compete at this international stage. So, looking back at your younger self, what would you say to her?
SB: So often, it's easy to attach your worth to an outcome, to an achievement, to a place, a person, an organization. Those are not the things that really sustain you. What I realized is how important it is to attach my value to a purpose and a calling. So I can be an athlete and activist and advocate, be philanthropic, all these different things, as long as that is centered around that North Star. It's not about how many followers or likes or comments or any of that kind of stuff. Your work really is about your purpose and your calling.

Scout Bassett specializes in the 100- and 200-meter dash races, but only the former is an event in the Paralympics.

Corey Friedenbach

SP: What do you consider your purpose now? And has it changed over the years?
SB: A thousand percent. [Laughs] It has (changed). I started out really only caring about results: performance, winning outcomes. And while that's still important to me, I wouldn't say it's the most important thing to me. Now, I really am driven by a purpose to help others have the same opportunities that I have had and have struggled to have along the way—in particular, women athletes with disabilities. That's really something that I'm super passionate about. It's really the reason why we started the Scout Bassett Fund, to give away financial grants to women athletes with disabilities. A lot of what I plan to do in the future will be centered around keeping that going and really having that be a bit of a legacy project.

SP: You said specifically women athletes with disabilities. Why the focus on that instead of just in general, athletes with disabilities?
SB: Currently the Paralympics is not an equal opportunity space for women. We have far fewer events and sports for women being offered. Currently at the Summer Paralympic Games, there's barely 40 percent participation of women athletes, and then at the Winter Games, there's less than 20 percent.

You're not going to have a 50/50 divide when you don't offer the same events or sports for women. And one of the reasons why that hasn't happened yet is because there's not enough women competing. So this is a great opportunity for us to support a pipeline of talent to compete at future Games.

And just in general, society and the culture really portray women with disabilities in a very different light than men with disabilities. Men with disabilities, they're heralded as being heroic, courageous and bionic—all these positive attributes. Women, from my standpoint, have largely not been portrayed in that way. The disability is the deficiency, the weakness, the label. Hopefully through the fund, we're going to be able to do some storytelling around a different narrative of women with disabilities.

SP: I read your ESPN Body Issue article and you made a good point that we shouldn’t take away from veterans’ service. But I guess for me, not having a disability, I never thought about that difference (between how men and women, as well as veterans and non-veterans are portrayed) until you mentioned it.
SB: I'll just give you another example. Very often when I'm traveling, people will ask “Oh, are you a veteran? Were you in combat?” They assume that's how I lost my leg. And the reason I know we view it very differently is because when I tell them “No,” the look of disappointment. They're just like, “Oh,” and then that's the end of the (interaction). And I'm like, “Well my story is quite interesting.” But in their mind, if you weren't in service, “I'm not interested.” It's almost like you’re a disappointment.