Paralympic sport owes a debt of gratitude to swimming star Sophie Pascoe, who has put disabled sport on an equal footing with able-bodied sport.
Pascoe, who is this month promoting her biography, has had an ongoing debate with the Halberg Trust over its annual awards, and disagrees with the decision to restrict disabled athletes to their own category.
She was a finalist in the sportswoman category in 2008 and 2010. However, the Halberg Awards introduced a disabled category in 2011 and Pascoe has won this award for the past two years.
Pascoe ranks herself alongside the best female athletes in the country and would like to be given the chance to stand alongside them at the Halberg Awards.
''The Halbergs are the biggest sporting awards in New Zealand and I believe I should be with the other top female athletes,'' she told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
She acknowledges the disabled award is great recognition for disabled athletes.
''But I see myself above the disabled category and should have the choice of what sector I go in. At the moment, I have no choice.
''I'm in an elite playing field. I train like an able-bodied, I race like an able-bodied and the support I need is exactly the same as an able-bodied athlete.
''My preparation and the way I perform on the world stage is on an equal playing field to those other athletes.''
Pascoe was also critical of the classification system for disabled athletes.
''I don't believe it is completely fair at the moment,'' she said.
The International Paralympic Committee has investigated the problems over the past two years and is looking at making some adjustments.
''The disabilities range so high in each classification but I believe it could be fairer. It doesn't worry me personally because it makes me hungrier,'' Pascoe said.
Pascoe, whose book Sophie Pascoe: A Stroke of Fate
was written by former Otago Daily Times journalist Tony Smith, turned professional in 2010 and has enough sponsors to make swimming her career.
One of Pascoe's biggest fights was with High Performance Sport New Zealand to get Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists' performance enhancement grants given the same amount.
They both get a $60,000 annual subsidy today but it took a lot of pressure to get the Paralympian gold medallists up from $15,000 to the present figure after the London Olympics.
''For years, we were relying on a smaller amount,'' Pascoe said.
''Sport at my level has to be a job. I don't have time to work. I worked very closely with Paralympics New Zealand to get the same funding as an able-bodied athlete.
''We need the same support and the same funding in to keep training so we can get success every year.''
Pascoe first made her mark internationally when she won three gold medals and a silver at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008.
''It was huge for me. I was only 15 and was young and naive.
''To top off the effort by getting the New Zealand Order of Merit was special. Not every 15-year-old gets anything like that.''
She added three more Paralympic gold medals and three silver in London last year.
The Christchurch earthquake destroyed the 50m pool at QE2 and it has forced Pascoe to do some 50m training at Moana Pool and in Auckland. It has been a handicap for Pascoe to have only 25m pools in Christchurch after the earthquake.
''We've got to make it work with what we have in Christchurch. No-one waits for us overseas. It's made us stronger.''
The long-term goal for Pascoe is the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
