Former Blaxland resident and Paralympian Amanda Reid has been accused of exaggerating her impairments.
The Australian Paralympic Committee has defended Reid, who won a silver medal in track cycling in the Rio Olympics in 2016. Before taking up cycling she was a swimmer, finishing fifth in the 100m breaststroke in London in 2012.
Last week her former swimming coach Simon Watkins detailed his concerns about her trajectory, alleging on BBC radio that Reid, formerly known as Amanda Fowler, had switched symptoms and classifications over a five-year period, going from an intellectually impaired athlete to a visually impaired athlete and then a physically impaired athlete by the time she competed in Rio.
The APC said it had no concerns with Reid's case or the classifications of her "multiple impairments".
"The APC has faith in the classification process and is fully satisfied that all requirements have been followed and met relating to Amanda's international classification under the IPC Classification code and the classification rules of the UCI," a spokesman said.
"The APC is aware of Amanda's multiple impairments and Amanda's classification throughout her Paralympic career in the sports of cycling and swimming.”
Disabled athletes are 'classified' under the International Classification Code set by the International Paralympic Committee. The code is sport-specific. A panel of experts oversees a series of rigorous medical and physiological tests before an athlete can attain an international classification.
The APC told Fairfax Media that all of Reid's classifications in swimming and cycling followed international rules and were administered by international panels, through medical, technical and observational assessments.
Watkins told the BBC Reid had come to him after the London Olympics as an athlete with an intellectual disability but that he was soon asked by her mother to support her re-classification as an athlete with a rare genetic disorder with symptoms similar to cerebral palsy.
Watkins objected to the shift and continued coaching Reid, but the pair parted ways in 2014. In 2015, he alleges seeing Reid at a swimming meet, re-classified as having a visual impairment and using a "white stick".
"This is a girl who had been driving a car. So now to be with a white stick ... was quite unbelievable," Watkins said.
Reid's mother, Kate Reid, told Fairfax Media the saga was taking a toll on her daughter. "We have been advised by the peak sporting bodies not to make any comment about this. It has been going on for a very long time and it's false," Kate Reid said. "Quite frankly this is taking its toll on Amanda's health."
