Simon Scheidegger (33) is the only journalist in a wheelchair at the European Championships in Germany. "The sports world isn't prepared for me," he says in an interview with blue Sport and talks about the difficulties and prejudices he has to overcome every day.
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- Swiss sports journalist Simon Scheidegger (33) is leading important pioneering work off the pitch at the European Championships.
- Scheidegger is the only journalist on site in a wheelchair. In an interview with blue Sport, he talks about the difficulties and prejudices he is confronted with as a disabled person in and around the stadiums.
- Scheidegger admits that there are times when he has even reconsidered whether he wants to continue doing his job because he often feels unaccepted in this environment.
- Yet he loves his job: "My job actually consists of the coolest things there are. It's about sport and emotions, which I like to convey."
Simon Scheidegger (33) enjoys talking to blue Sport about his experiences at the European Championships in Germany. His only condition: "It shouldn't be a story about heroes or whiners."
Scheidegger has been a sports journalist for 13 years and is living his childhood dream. "Beni Thurnheer was always my great role model, I only ever wanted to be a sports journalist," he tells blue Sport.
These days he is reporting on the European Championships for Keystone SDA. Just like thousands of other football journalists from all over the world are doing - and yet in a completely different way. Scheidegger has been disabled since birth and uses a wheelchair to get around.
"It's quite a challenge to do my job here," he says. "This is actually nothing new, as people in Switzerland didn't wait for journalists like me, but here in Germany it's a lot more difficult. The extent of it surprised me."
When security tells you that you don't belong here ...
There are the numerous infrastructural difficulties he has to overcome. On the way to Gelsenkirchen, he can barely get to the end of the line in front of the stadium on the subway. As there is no elevator, he has to be carried up the stairs.
At the stadium in Cologne, he is told he can choose where he wants to sit. Option A is with the photographers on the edge of the pitch, where he can't see over the boards. Option B is in the middle of the fans in the wheelchair seats. He can only see the journalists' seats, where all his colleagues are sitting, from a distance.
In Frankfurt during Switzerland v Germany, they tried to talk him out of going into the mixed zone to do interviews. "UEFA said the barriers were too high for me."
On the other hand, he also has to deal with prejudice. Because many people don't see him as a journalist. "For example, when a security officer tells you on the way to the mixed zone that I don't belong here. Many people don't expect that you can do this job as a wheelchair user."
"I have the feeling that I'm not taken seriously"
He announced his intention to come to UEFA back in April and also enquired about the conditions in the stadiums. Not much has happened since then. "The stewards who look after me are all nice. But that doesn't change the structures. It was sobering when I realized that I had to do my job in the midst of the fans, even though I had informed myself so early on. I had the feeling that I wasn't being taken seriously."
Scheidegger admits that there were times when he even reconsidered whether he wanted to continue doing his job because the circumstances were so tiring and exhausting and because he often didn't feel accepted in this environment. "My job actually consists of the coolest things there are. It's about sport and emotions, which I want to convey. But I often have to deal with a lot of things that require energy. It's not always easy to deal with that."
"I've never felt as comfortable as I do in Qatar"
He carries on. Because he loves his job. And because he knows that things can be done differently: the World Cup in Qatar was a perfect example for him. "That was a huge difference. In Qatar, you didn't notice that I was in a wheelchair. I had the same routes as everyone else. There were lifts everywhere, everything was signaled. I could sit with my colleagues to work. I've rarely felt as comfortable in my job as I did there. Here in Germany, I'm constantly negotiating."
And there is something else that drives Scheidegger. "I realize that there has obviously never been anyone in Germany who does this job with a walking disability." If he has his way, that should change in the future. "I hope that in future people with disabilities will be able to do this job just as well as people without disabilities. I see myself in a kind of pioneering role. And I hope that I can be for someone what Beni Thurnheer was for me. And that this person will no longer face the obstacles that I do now. The goal is that there are people everywhere, with or without disabilities. A mixed society is important."
Scheidegger is currently doing pioneering work at the European Championships in Germany - and he is doing it in a refreshing way. Without complaining and without appearing heroic.
