Paralympic Athletes and “Knowing Disability”

Abstract

This article explores non-disabled young people’s understandings of Paralympic athletes and the disability sports they play. The article examines how society has come to know disability by discussing medical and social model views of disability. The conceptual tools offered by Pierre Bourdieu are utilised as a means of understanding the nature and value of capital afforded to Paralympic athletes and disability sports. Data were generated using interactive focus group discussions with four groups of non-disabled young people from one secondary school in England. The main themes emerging from these data include: different, impaired bodies (“Honestly my gut reaction is yuck, yuck”); legitimising and valuing disability sports (“It’s not a normal sport”); and experiencing (un)valued disability sports (“I’d love to do it”). In concluding, I argue that whilst the 2012 Paralympics offers one vehicle for sporting excellence to be publicly acknowledged and celebrated, sustained efforts beyond this mega-event are needed if athletes with disabilities are to secure parity of status with athletes without disabilities.

Keywords:

• Bourdieu
• capital
• habitus
• perceptions of Paralympic athletes
• sport

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2012 International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport, Glasgow, UK. Funding for conference attendance was provided by Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK. There was no research funding for this study, and no restrictions have been imposed on free access to, or publication of, the research data.