"A More Equitable Society": The Politics of Global Fairness in Paralympic Sport

The Paralympic Movement explicitly sets out to create a more equitable society and promote participation for all and fairness in disability sport. This is primarily achieved through the use of a range of interventions with less attention given to how economic factors may hinder access and achievemen...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 11; no. 12; p. e0167481
Main Authors Swartz, Leslie, Bantjes, Jason, Rall, Divan, Ferreira, Suzanne, Blauwet, Cheri, Derman, Wayne
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 12.12.2016
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Analysis
Athletes
Athletes with disabilities
Athletic Performance
Biology and Life Sciences
Classification
Cybernetics
Disability
Disabled Persons
Economic factors
Economics
Equality
Female
Humans
International
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Models, Theoretical
Multiple regression analysis
Olympic games
Paralympic Games
Physical Sciences
Pistorius, Oscar
Politics
Population number
Prostheses
Regression analysis
Research and Analysis Methods
Social Sciences
Societies
Society
Sports
Statistical analysis
Success
United Kingdom > UK
South Africa
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Summary:The Paralympic Movement explicitly sets out to create a more equitable society and promote participation for all and fairness in disability sport. This is primarily achieved through the use of a range of interventions with less attention given to how economic factors may hinder access and achievement in Paralympic sport. We investigated how country-level economic variables influence the level of participation and achievement in the 2015 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics Championships held in Doha. We used multiple regression analysis to show how levels of participation and achievement in the Championships were significantly determined by economic factors independent of population size. Our data show that in spite of the ideals of inclusion and fairness within the Paralympic Movement and the considerable effort expended on the use of technologies to achieve this, economic factors continue to exert a statistically significant influence on both the level of participation and achievement of Paralympic athletes. LMICs participate at lower levels and achieve fewer medals when compared to HICs. These differences are particularly marked in events that have a high cost of participation. Our findings raise questions regarding the use of current technologies and the level to which they are able to truly disrupt the politics of global inequality in sport.
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Competing Interests: The authors declare the following: CB is chairperson of the Medical Committee of the International Paralympic Committee. WD is a member of the Medical Committee of the International Paralympic Committee. WD is co-director of the South African IOC research centre and receives an IOC Research Centres Grant. WD undertakes medico-legal work and is from time to time expert witness. WD is advisory consultant for Ossur South Africa and Discovery Vitality. SF is coach to the South African Paralympic team. LS and JB attended the IPC meeting in Doha, 2015 at the invitation of the Medical Committee of the International Paralympic Committee. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Conceptualization: LS JB.Formal analysis: JB DR LS.Funding acquisition: LS.Investigation: LS JB DR.Methodology: JB LS DR.Project administration: JB.Resources: DR JB LS.Supervision: LS.Writing – original draft: LS JB.Writing – review & editing: LS JB DR SF CB WD.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0167481