Final Exam (Lecture 22 + 23 - Hot Topics in Parasport) Flashcards
What are some meanings attached to the quote “The Olympics is where heroes are created. The Paralympics is where the heroes come.”?
Can be a double-edged sword that undermines their accomplishments, because they are already decorated and not treated with the same respect when someone does actually win gold, etc.
Plays into supercrip narrative
BUT also cool because people in the Olympics have to prove themselves because they are around others who could also win, while para athletes might already be known
What is the “Supercrip” narrative?
Stereotype narrative that displays
the plot of someone who has had to fight
against their impairment to overcome it and
achieve unlikely success
Problematic because it implies that disability and achievement are incompatible states, and disability NEEDS to be ‘overcome’
Do disability and trauma always need to be presented together?
Often is, but shouldn’t have to be
We don’t need to hear about trauma to root for someone!
How did participation in sport shape the stories of athletes in the movie?
Some had positive experiences, some had negative experiences but pushed through to find benefit
“There are three ways out of the disability ghetto: _____, ________, and _______.” What were the reasons?
Money - buys opportunity to define yourself beyond the narrow confines of disability
Politics - usually disability/“movement” politics buys status of not being one of “them”
Sport - provides the opportunity to redefine who you are in the very terms reserved to define who you are not. It is becoming the most accessible vehicle for moving beyond disability dependency
Challenges to parasport
Marketing and recognition
Classification (who is included/excluded)
Cheating
What is the purpose of classification?
Provides structure for competition
Goal is to minimize the impact of eligible impairment types on the outcome of competition
What are the eligible impairments (some examples)?
Impaired muscle power
Limb deficiency (incomplete development of a limb)
Short stature
Ataxia (poor muscle control)
Visual impairment
Impaired passive range of movement (joint stiffness)
Leg length difference
Hypertonia (too much muscle tone, stiff)
Athetosis (involuntary writhing movement)
Intellectual impairment
Who classifies an athlete?
Official classifiers
What are some classification challenges?
- Expertise and training of classifiers
- Impairments that change over time
- Large number of classes = more events (so can’t have many different classes)
- Misrepresentation of impairment (VERY RARE)
Types of cheating in parasport
Technical - tech used to help impairment (ex. running blades that are more increase springiness to help speed)
Physiological - Changing a part of the body to get advantage (the catheter thing where the position of the catheter could release cortisol/epinephrine/norepinephrine/adrenaline to help performance)
Pharmacological - Drugs
Classification -
What was the purpose of the study? (Assigned reading: The Image of Paralympic Athletes)
It was to see if the IPC’s “athlete first, person with disability second” method was getting across.
Para athletes felt like they aren’t being taken seriously, trauma is associated too often and not their athletic success, and less sponsorship deals
To gain an understanding of the general population’s perceived image of para athletes to re-enforce positive views or correct negative views
What is schema theory? How does it relate to perceptions of para athletes?
It alludes to how images exist in memory. Memory can be specific memories or schemas (abstract memories)
Suggests people have preconceived ideas that are related to previous experience with them
Repeated exposure to the supercrip stereotype, it strengthens the activation of those schemas
Why is the media so important?
They are the gatekeepers!
Coverage of the Paralympics is under-represented in sport journalism
- Some believe there is a lack of interest
- Some don’t take it seriously
- Some don’t think it’s real competition compared to the Olympics
- Perceived less media value because often no sport-specific commentaries
- usually never shows failure in Paralympics, only positive (just being there is good enough, not being elite athletes, and newsrooms LOVE negatives)
