The Paralympics is the jewel in the crown for disabled athletes, the culmination of hard work and big dreams.

They're also incredibly important because they provide a pathway to sport that, before the existence of the Games, was extremely limited for disabled people.

But this year, two Paralympic athletes have achieved the "double double" of Paralympics and Olympic selection.

Last month, Australian Melissa Tapper and Brazilian Bruna Alexandre, battled it out in the Olympic table tennis arena.

Neither Tapper nor Alexandre progressed past the preliminary rounds.

But they both had the benefit of a second chance to improve on these results at the Paralympic Games.

A feat that may seem astounding to some, and perhaps unfair to others, especially when you consider that the Olympics is not an option for most disabled athletes, denoting the point of why the Paralympics exists.

But for many of our current Para athletes, like Jamieson Leeson, Ahmed Kelly, and Madison de Rozario, the Paralympic pathway has been the only option to reach the heights of their sport.

The value of the Paralympics is in its platform to be an elite sports pathway for people with disabilities.

And while there is a certain pride in the achievement of athletes like Tapper and Alexandre, it is a remarkable achievement, the question must be asked, does the "double double" devalue the Paralympics?

The value of sport

Tapper and Alexandre are not the first to achieve the "double double" feat; there is a rich history of Paralympians competing in the Olympics stretching back to the 1980s.

New Zealander Neroli Fairhall has the distinction of being the inaugural athlete to achieve the double.

She first competed in the Paralympics in athletics in 1972, before adding archery to her repertoire in 1980, eventually winning a spot on the 1984 Olympic team.

Since Fairhall, many other athletes have taken on both Games across a multitude of sports, including South Africa's Natalie du Toit for swimming, and notorious track runner, Oscar Pistorius.

But what does it mean for athletes with disabilities to compete at the Olympics and the Paralympics?

What does it mean for the athletes that can't compete at both Games?

The Paralympics is a movement dedicated to an inclusive world through Para sport, and whether you are a Boccia player who requires a ramp operator to compete or a Para swimmer almost clocking times as fast as non-disabled athletes, it provides a platform to achieve sporting success.

As a movement it draws attention to disability in sport, and beyond sport.

We see many Para athletes, like de Rozario, swimmer Rowan Crothers, and of course Dylan Alcott, become outspoken advocates for the disability community, inclusion and accessibility across all sectors of life.

Ludwig Guttman is the founding father of the Stoke Mandeville Games, which began in 1948 as a sports program to rehabilitate injured service men and women and is considered the building blocks of the Paralympics.

He knew the value of sport for disabled people.

"Small as it was, it was a demonstration to the public that competitive sport is not the prerogative of the able-bodied but that the severely disabled, even those with a disablement of such magnitude as spinal paraplegia, can become sportsmen and women in their own right," he said.

If the Paralympics doesn't serve the most severely disabled of our community, it is not doing its job.

Space for both Games

Sport is not only a device to facilitate recovery and rehabilitation, it is also a stage for competitiveness and excellence, which should not be denied to anyone living with disability.

And this is what concerns the question around the "double double" devaluing the Paralympics.

As much as we sometimes like to delude ourselves that anything is possible, I know from my own experience as an athlete that not everything is possible, and Para athletes not competing at the Olympics is okay.

There is no way that I would have been able to qualify for an Olympic Games, but the very fact that there is a competition where I can compete at an elite level gives me my possible.

There is space for both Games and for non-disabled and disabled athletes, the Paralympics is proving this with the success we are seeing in Paris, with the athletes, ticket sales and media coverage.

There is also space for Paralympians to compete at the Olympics, if they wish to, provided we don't glorify their crossover to the detriment of Paralympians who will never be able to cross that bridge.

Elizabeth Wright is a reporter with ABC Sport. Elizabeth was previously based in the UK where she worked as a disability allyship consultant, writer, and managing editor of Disability Review Magazine. She is also a triple Paralympic medallist for Australia in swimming.