Being a paralympic athlete in an able-bodied world

Abstract

The goal of this research was to understand how South-African paralympic athletes experience being disabled athletes in an able-bodied world. These experiences of the paralympic athletes expanded the diversity of known experiences of the disabled and shed more light on the embodiment of impairment and disability. Four paralympic athletes participated in the research by writing letters and having telephonic interviews. In these letters and interviews they were allowed to tell their stories regarding their experiences of being paralympic athletes in an able-bodied world. These stories of the paralympic athletes reflected how they made sense of their disability, by using or challenging some of the dominant stories in society. From a narrative position it means that their stories were influenced by the cultural stories which specify customary beliefs and behaviour. The different way in which the four participants told their stories and the difference in their dominant storylines underlined the need for a post-modern approach to the subject of disability.