A more equitable society : the politics of global fairness in paralympic sport
Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Abstract
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.
Description
CITATION: Swartz, L., et al. 2016. A more equitable society : the politics of global fairness in paralympic sport. PLoS ONE, 1(12):e0167481, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0167481.
The original publication is available at http://journals.plos.org/plosone
Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.
The original publication is available at http://journals.plos.org/plosone
Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.
Keywords
Paralympic sport, Olympics -- Rules -- People with disabilities, Paralympics -- Law and legislation, Olympics -- People with disabilities -- Economic aspects
Citation
Swartz, L., et al. 2016. A more equitable society : the politics of global fairness in paralympic sport. PLoS ONE, 1(12):e0167481, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0167481