About the Author: Benjamin Baird serves at the U.S. Embassy in London.

“All that matters in the race is the amount of training each person has been putting into the event and how fast they go on that day,” says U.S. Paralympics gold medalist Josh George.

George, along with other U.S. Paralympians, is teaming up with the U.S. State Department to take part in the 2012 Hours Against Hate campaign. The Olympic-inspired campaign’s goal is to use sport as a catalyst to change perceptions.

“The first person to cross the finish line is the winner. It doesn’t matter whether they believe something differently than I do, whether they have different sexual preferences than me, whether their skin color’s different. None of that matters.”

Despite his Paralympian physical abilities, George still gets treated differently because he uses a wheelchair.

“I have had to deal with a lot of ignorance. I have been judged,… more »