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The Paralympic Movement: Empowerment or Disempowerment for People with Disabilities?

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The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies

Abstract

Disabled sports, whether as leisure activities, rehabilitation or fitness-related exercises, or as competitive entities, have become widely accepted in today’s society, and recently they were universally promoted under the UN human rights umbrella. Indeed, people with disabilities in almost all cultural spheres in the world have become emancipated and as such the disability sports movement has attempted to follow this evolutionary process. In 2003 the International Paralympic Committee began to promote their ‘new vision’ which was ‘to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world’.2 We can agree with this vision but questions need to be raised as to whether the Paralympic movement and the Paralympic Games really contribute to the emancipation and empowerment of people with disabilities. In other words, are the stakeholders of the International Paralympic Committee followers or leaders? And does the Paralympic movement serve the struggle for justice and equal treatment for people with a disability? In this chapter we will question and deconstruct the above issues and ask whether the Paralympic movement is empowering or disempowering the community of people with disabilities.

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Authors
  1. Otto J. Schantz
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  2. Keith Gilbert
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Canada

    Helen Jefferson Lenskyj

  2. Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

    Stephen Wagg

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© 2012 Otto J. Schantz and Keith Gilbert

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Schantz, O.J., Gilbert, K. (2012). The Paralympic Movement: Empowerment or Disempowerment for People with Disabilities?. In: Lenskyj, H.J., Wagg, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230367463_23

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