When I was approached about this article I was a little apprehensive. I didn't want to give Mary Ellen Synon any more publicity (something she obviously craves) than she has already received. But I felt it was important to let the Irish public, who have been brilliant throughout the last week, know how the team and myself, in particular, felt about the issue.

When I was shown the column, my first reaction was that it was a joke. It was just on a piece of paper, faxed over from home and I thought it was somebody's idea of a sick piece of fun. It couldn't have been serious. Then I was told it had run on the pages of the Sunday Independent and my reaction changed.

I was disgusted. I couldn't understand how anybody could really write this stuff and mean it. I couldn't believe that somebody would read it and give it the okay to be printed in a national newspaper. This wasn't just an insult to the Paralympics, or indeed disabled people in general, but to any person who has respect for their fellow human beings.

I tried to, but couldn't, understand the motive for writing it. It baffled me. What did she hope to get out of it, what was there to be gained? It was clear that the article was written without any research into the Paralympics or disabled sport. If Synon, or indeed any other journalist from the Sunday Independent/Irish Independent, had come out here to Sydney, they'd realise just how wrong they had got it.

What Synon doesn't seem to understand or care about is that for every athlete out here, Irish or otherwise, there have been years and years of preparation, dedication and sacrifice. We are no different to able-bodied athletes.

This is serious stuff. Nobody comes out here to wobble around a track, nobody comes out here to swim from one end of a pool to another using Braille. Instead, you have absolutely amazing performances from top-class athletes in the second biggest sporting event ever. The attendance at these Games has been staggering. The crowds have been huge. These people are not here to see somebody limping around Stadium Australia, to see the blind and the lame and the crippled. They're paying to witness top-class sport from the world's best athletes.

I have sat on the Council of State, one of the greatest honours that can be bestowed on an Irishman, but outside of my family life, I have never been as proud as when I pulled on that green singlet.

The effort that goes into just making the qualifying standard is unreal. I've trained with a lot of the Munster rugby team over the past few years and those guys know the work we put in. This isn't just throwing a discus around for a bit of fun. This is a seven-day-a-week job. I don't look at myself as being disabled. I'm an athlete in a wheelchair. I broke my back in a car crash 22 years ago and the reason I got to where I am today is that the people around me didn't treat me any differently on the February 7th, 1978 than they did on the February 6th. I was still the same person, my emotions and feelings were still the same. The only difference was that my means of transport wasn't my legs any more, it was a wheelchair.

That goes for everybody on the team. None of us, no disabled person, wants sympathy. Nor to be patronised, patted on the head and told aren't we great for achieving what we have. We're here in our own right as world class athletes competing against the very best. All we are looking for is a little recognition, a little awareness of our ability, not our disability.

Not some snide columnist pouring poison on our efforts.

Sean O'Grady was born in Limerick in 1956. The 44-year-old was a hurler of some note, representing his county at minor level before breaking his back in a car accident in 1978. Since then, O'Grady has represented Ireland at every Paralympics since Seoul '88. He regards the bronze won in Atlanta for the discus as his greatest achievement in sport. On Thursday O'Grady finished fifth in the discus and announced his retirement from top-class competition.