Building bridges: a Qualitative exploration of the athlete – guide partnership in high-performance parasport

IF 8 2区 医学 Q1 HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health Pub Date : 2023-09-26 DOI:10.1080/2159676x.2023.2260392
Staci Mannella, Andrea Bundon
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The data were analysed through a reflexive thematic analysis and two themes were constructed. Changing ‘Visibility’: Reshaping Perspectives Through the Athlete – Guide Partnership illustrates how being part of the athlete – guide partnership led participants to different understandings about high-performance sport and disability. Tandeming Sport Systems Built for One demonstrates the challenges participants encountered navigating in tandem sport systems intended to support solo athletes. The findings suggest that the athlete – guide partnership creates inclusivity in Para sport by allowing athletes to fully participate. However, the partnership is also exposed to detrimental aspects of high-performance sport environments that prioritise performance rather than athlete well-being. The findings contribute to a growing body of critical disability sport scholarship that calls out ableism in sport. It also can inform the practices of the sport sector with the aim of better understanding and supporting the needs of visually impaired athletes.KEYWORDS: DisabilitysportParalympicsblindvisually impaired AcknowledgementsTo the many athletes and guides we have had the privilege of working with. May you resonate with the experiences of these participants and know that your work is appreciated.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. When considering the experiences of individuals who have historically been marginalised, language matters. While there are ongoing debates amongst disability scholars about preferred language (i.e. person first vs. identity first) we have opted to use identity first (i.e. disabled athletes) as this aligns with disability justice advocates and scholars who centre action in their social justice efforts.2. In some sports and classes, visually impaired athlete are ‘permitted’ but not ‘required’ to have a guide as is in the case for athletes classified as B3 in Nordic skiing. In other sports, the use of a guide is mandatory. This is the case for all visually impaired athletes competing in cycling – the events for visually impaired athletes all involve the use of a tandem bike and sighted pilot.3. The other examples are boccia where athletes in the BC1, BC3 and BC4 classes can have a non-disabled ‘assistant’ who takes instructions from the athlete to make adjustments to the height or position of the ramp that athletes use to deliver the ball and rowing where a non-disabled coxswain steers and commands the boat in the mixed coxed four event that includes male and female athletes with diverse impairments.4. 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Abstract

ABSTRACTIndividuals who are visually impaired compete in Paralympic sports with the help of their sighted guides. The guide participates alongside the athlete, and the pair seek to achieve optimal performance together. The partnership transforms many sports -typically understood to be individual- into team sports, yet little is known about this unique sport relationship. The purpose of this study was to explore how the athlete – guide partnership challenges and reproduces normative assumptions of bodies, abilities, and high-performance sport. The study was informed by a critical interpretivist paradigm and included interviews with both athletes and guides from six high-performance athlete – guide pairs (12 interviews). The data were analysed through a reflexive thematic analysis and two themes were constructed. Changing ‘Visibility’: Reshaping Perspectives Through the Athlete – Guide Partnership illustrates how being part of the athlete – guide partnership led participants to different understandings about high-performance sport and disability. Tandeming Sport Systems Built for One demonstrates the challenges participants encountered navigating in tandem sport systems intended to support solo athletes. The findings suggest that the athlete – guide partnership creates inclusivity in Para sport by allowing athletes to fully participate. However, the partnership is also exposed to detrimental aspects of high-performance sport environments that prioritise performance rather than athlete well-being. The findings contribute to a growing body of critical disability sport scholarship that calls out ableism in sport. It also can inform the practices of the sport sector with the aim of better understanding and supporting the needs of visually impaired athletes.KEYWORDS: DisabilitysportParalympicsblindvisually impaired AcknowledgementsTo the many athletes and guides we have had the privilege of working with. May you resonate with the experiences of these participants and know that your work is appreciated.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. When considering the experiences of individuals who have historically been marginalised, language matters. While there are ongoing debates amongst disability scholars about preferred language (i.e. person first vs. identity first) we have opted to use identity first (i.e. disabled athletes) as this aligns with disability justice advocates and scholars who centre action in their social justice efforts.2. In some sports and classes, visually impaired athlete are ‘permitted’ but not ‘required’ to have a guide as is in the case for athletes classified as B3 in Nordic skiing. In other sports, the use of a guide is mandatory. This is the case for all visually impaired athletes competing in cycling – the events for visually impaired athletes all involve the use of a tandem bike and sighted pilot.3. The other examples are boccia where athletes in the BC1, BC3 and BC4 classes can have a non-disabled ‘assistant’ who takes instructions from the athlete to make adjustments to the height or position of the ramp that athletes use to deliver the ball and rowing where a non-disabled coxswain steers and commands the boat in the mixed coxed four event that includes male and female athletes with diverse impairments.4. Throughout the text we refer to athletes with visual impairments as ‘athletes’ and their sighted partners as ‘guides’ – such terminology is not to imply that sighted guides are not also athletes but rather a language choice to distinguish between the roles in these partnerships. This terminology is also consistent with how the pairs competing in these events are commonly referred to in Para sport selection documents and when reporting on event results.Additional informationNotes on contributorsStaci MannellaStaci Mannella is a doctoral student in counseling psychology at Ball State University. Her research uses qualitative methodologies to explore the intersections of high performance disability sport cultures, expereinces of impairments, and athlete mental health.Andrea BundonAndrea Bundon is an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia. Her research spans the sociology of sport and critical disability studies. Informed by qualitative and participatory methodologies, she explores the intersections of sport, physical activity, health, disability and social inclusion/exclusion.
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搭建桥梁:运动员在高性能伞运动中引导伙伴关系的定性探索
视障人士在有视力的向导的帮助下参加残奥运动。向导与运动员一起参与,两人一起寻求最佳表现。这种伙伴关系将许多通常被理解为个人的运动转变为团队运动,但人们对这种独特的运动关系知之甚少。本研究的目的是探讨运动员引导的伙伴关系如何挑战和再现对身体、能力和高绩效运动的规范假设。本研究采用批判性解释主义范式,包括对6对高水平运动员-向导的运动员和向导进行访谈(12次访谈)。通过反身性主位分析对数据进行分析,构建了两个主位。改变“可见度”:通过运动员-向导伙伴关系重塑视角展示了作为运动员-向导伙伴关系的一部分,参与者如何对高性能运动和残疾产生不同的理解。为一个人建造的串联运动系统展示了参与者在支持单人运动员的串联运动系统中遇到的挑战。研究结果表明,运动员引导的伙伴关系通过允许运动员充分参与,在残疾人运动中创造了包容性。然而,这种合作关系也暴露在高性能运动环境的不利方面,即优先考虑性能而不是运动员的健康。这一发现促使越来越多的批评性残疾体育学术呼吁体育中的残疾歧视。它还可以为体育部门的做法提供信息,以便更好地理解和支持视障运动员的需求。关键词:残疾运动残奥会盲人视力受损感谢我们有幸与之合作的许多运动员和导游。愿您与这些参与者的经历产生共鸣,并知道您的工作受到赞赏。披露声明作者未报告潜在的利益冲突。在考虑历史上被边缘化的个人的经历时,语言很重要。虽然残疾学者之间一直在争论首选语言(即个人优先还是身份优先),但我们选择使用身份优先(即残疾运动员),因为这与残疾正义倡导者和学者一致,他们将行动放在社会正义的努力中。在一些运动和课程中,视障运动员是“允许”但不是“要求”有导游的,就像北欧滑雪B3级运动员的情况一样。在其他运动中,使用向导是强制性的。这是所有参加自行车比赛的视障运动员的情况——视障运动员的比赛都涉及使用双人自行车和视力正常的驾驶员。另一个例子是,BC1、BC3和BC4级别的运动员可以有一名非残疾人“助手”,根据运动员的指示调整运动员用来投球和划船的坡道的高度或位置,而在混合双人赛艇项目中,有一名非残疾人舵手掌舵和指挥船只,包括各种残疾的男女运动员。在整篇文章中,我们把有视力障碍的运动员称为“运动员”,把他们的有视力的伙伴称为“向导”——这样的术语并不是暗示有视力的向导不是运动员,而是一种语言选择,用来区分这些伙伴关系中的角色。这一术语也与残疾人运动选拔文件和项目结果报告中对参加这些项目的选手的称呼一致。作者简介:staci Mannella是波尔州立大学心理咨询专业的博士生。她的研究使用定性方法来探索高性能残疾人体育文化,损伤经历和运动员心理健康的交叉点。Andrea Bundon是不列颠哥伦比亚大学运动机能学学院的副教授。她的研究涵盖了体育社会学和批判性残疾研究。通过定性和参与性方法,她探讨了运动、体育活动、健康、残疾和社会包容/排斥的交叉点。
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CiteScore
10.60
自引率
10.20%
发文量
36
期刊最新文献
Stories of acceptance and resistance: illness identity construction in athletes (mis)diagnosed with a personality disorder ‘I’m not the police’: practical strategies for sport coach mentors to develop trust and trustworthiness Building bridges: a Qualitative exploration of the athlete – guide partnership in high-performance parasport You wouldn’t let your phone run out of battery: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of male professional football coaches’ well-being Whiteness, Canadian university athletic administration, and anti-racism leadership: ‘A bunch of white haired, white dudes in the back rooms’
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