Inclusiveness in Paralympics

INCLUSIVENESS IN PARALYMPICS

In the 2012 Olympics, double amputee Oscar Pistorius was allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes in the 400m, thus breaking down barriers between Paralympians and Olympians, but also between disabled and able-bodied people, and challenging representations of disability. 

In his article, Ch Brown, a lecturer in Sports Development, explores the relationship between sport and society in the context of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, focusing more specifically on the extent to which the Paralympic Games can shift views and attitudes toward disability. He voices his misgivings about the ability of such a sporting event to drive significant social change, despite its ambition to do so. 

In what respects does the Paralympics fail to meet its objective of inclusiveness? 

1. The ambition of the Paralympics: fight discrimination against disabled people and enhance their opportunities and prospects 

Cf the global campaign #We The 15 spearheaded by the IPC 

Yet, the Paralympics fails to meet its objective. 

Beyond the practical reason (2 weeks every 4 years), the more profound reasons: 

1. The Paralympics entail exclusion 

-because of the eligibility system, athletes who do not comply with certain criteria are excluded 

-as an elite sporting event, the Paralympics features feats that ‘ordinary’ disabled people would be unable to accomplish 

1. Ultimately, the Paralympics misrepresents disability, in a way which is detrimental to disabled people 

-not all impairments are represented in the Olympics 

-greater visibility is given to technologically enhanced impairments to attract an able-bodied audience, although a lot of disabled people do not have access to such technology 

-Paralympians are represented as “supercrips”, i.e superhumans or magical creatures, which widens the gap between disabled athletes and ‘ordinary’ disabled people, and reinforces the perception that ‘ordinary’ disabled people are underachievers 

Thus, despite its ambitious and praise-worthy objective, the Paralympics seems to have limited effect in deconstructing worldviews and changing attitudes, which leads us to the following question: can sport have an impact beyond the sporting arena?  

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