Paralympics and Disability Sport

Academic research on the Paralympics and disability sport is growing. University courses, governing bodies, and sporting organisations are also witnessing a rise of interest in disabled sport. This book is therefore timely and of importance. Written by leading scholars, it addresses a variety of topics in relation to the Paralympics and disability sport. These include: the sociology of Paralympic sport; sport coaching at recreational and elite level; sport history and exercise rehabilitation; exercise participation; and future directions for disability sport research. Throughout the book, disability sport is both celebrated and critically examined. Critical questions are raised, and practical suggestions offered, about being a Paralympian, coaching athletes with a disability, and exercise as a form of rehabilitation. Empirical evidence is drawn from different people and various sports. These range from autoethnographic stories from a former Paralympian, to interviews with disability sport administrators, to observations of and interviews with coaches of athletes in the sports of adapted water skiing, para-swimming, and wheelchair basketball, rugby and tennis. The book will be of interest to sociologists of sport, sport coaches, sport and exercise psychologists, disability scholars, qualitative researchers, and disability sporting organisations. This book was published as a special issue of Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health.

1. Introduction: 2. Interrogating disability: the (de)composition of a recovering Paralympian 3. See the sport, not the disability: exploring the Paralympic paradox 4. The role of coaches of wheelchair rugby in the development of athletes with a spinal cord injury 5. Coaches of athletes with a physical disability: a look at their learning experiences 6. Disability sport is going back to its roots: rehabilitation of military personnel receiving sudden traumatic disabilities in the twenty-first century 7. Balancing safety and autonomy: structural and social barriers affecting the exercise participation of women with disabilities in community recreation and fitness facilities 8. Transcending ‘Hoop Dreams’: toward a consideration of corporeality, crossroads and intersections, and discursive possibilities in disability and theory

Brett Smith works in the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport within the School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences at Loughborough University. His research interests include the psycho-social dimensions of disability and wellbeing, and narrative inquiry. He is Editor of the journal Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health.