L’atleta paralimpico: dallo stigma al mito, e ritorno Riflessioni sul ruolo dello sport nell’immaginario della disabilità

Abstract

The original label of “sport for the disabled” is currently facing a transition. From the idea of “minor competition” to its gradual affirmation as an independent sport reality, even a way to support social activism and, on closer inspection, a privileged instrument to deconstruction the  social stigma of disability. It has been analyzed the current  media attention on disability and the narrative ways used to talk about it, in the light of the inevitable mutual interaction between social imaginary and mass-culture representation. Disability has been converted into a myth since the Paralympic champions have become popular not only for their sports results, but also because of their life stories and thanks to the cultural and advertising industries. The social imaginary migrates from the pietism and social invisibility of the stigma to the celebration of the “extra-ordinariness” of the Paralympic myth. However, these heroes will soon end up being locked up in a new  cage of sense .