Sports System and Policy Factors Influencing Athletic Career Pathways in Paralympic Sports

There has been an increasing interest among nations to win medals in major international competitions. This trend has stimulated researchers (e.g., De Bosscher, Bingham, Shibli, van Bottenburg, & De Knop, 2008; Sotiriadou & Shilbury, 2009) to better understand elite sport policy development. Effective elite sport policy will advance the creation of successful elite athlete pathways which, in turn, are vital for gaining a competitive international advantage (De Bosscher, Shibli, Westerbeek, & van Bottenburg, 2015; Sotiriadou, Shilbury, & Quick, 2008). Literature on the subject has increasingly examined and delineated what defines successful sport systems that can deliver successful able-bodied elite athletes. The potential of Paralympic sport system and athletes with an impairment, however, has been underexplored. Further, literature on what comprises athletic career pathways in Paralympic sports, as well as the support services that bolster the development of para-athletes, are surprisingly limited (e.g., Misener & Darcy, 2014; Shapiro & Pitts, 2014). By using Brazil as a case, a successful nation in Paralympic sports, this doctoral research aimed to examine the various factors influencing the development of athletic career pathways in Paralympic sports, including sports policies, stakeholders, and contextual factors. To address this aim, a mixed-methods approach was adopted, and six studies, in total, form the body of this doctoral research.Study 1 (Chapter 4) served as the basis for a preliminary study in which sports policy approaches were investigated in order to identify fundamental differences between able-bodied and parasport systems. The study used the nine sport policy dimensions from the model known as Sport Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success (SPLISS) (De Bosscher et al., 2006, 2015) to explore the perceptions of 16 international Paralympic stakeholders using semi-structured interviews. The findings from this study allowed a broadening of the understanding of parasport development, organisation, and complexity. The main conclusion is that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to developing para-athletes; rather, the athletic pathways in parasport appear, in each case, to be driven by impairment-specific factors. Furthermore, the results showed that the development of policies in parasport should take into consideration the parasport-specific contexts and their intricacies. The results of this exploratory investigation underpinned the aims and research questions for the subsequent studies. Following this international exploration, the focus of this doctoral research narrowed down to a country-specific case in order to produce culture-relevant research. To accomplish this, 32 Brazilian Paralympic stakeholders participated in the next three studies by means of in-depth face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. The findings from these three studies were grounded in the perceptions and experiences of the key stakeholders responsible for developing and shaping para-athletes’ career pathways in Brazil (i.e., coaches, sport managers, high-performance directors, academics, and classifiers).Study 2 (Chapter 5) was underpinned by the (able-bodied) athlete development models existing in the literature; these were used to gather insights into how the phases of athletic career pathways in Paralympic sport could be developed, taking into account the participants' perspectives. The results identified six distinct phases of athletic career pathways in Paralympic sport (i.e., attraction, retention, competition, talent identification and development, elite, and retirement). The findings from this study confirmed the complexity and individuality of athletic development in parasports. Several impairment-specific factors are essential ingredients when developing para-athletes’ career pathways, such as the classification system, the nature and the severity of the impairment (acquired or congenital), and an early or late start in the sport. Concerning the length and duration of each pathway phase, the nature of the impairment may influence the age at which athletes progress from one phase to the next and also may vary by sport. In parasport, age is less significant than it is in able-bodied sport; para-athletes can remain at the top for an extended period, sustaining long athletic careers, depending on the sport. Study 3 (Chapter 6) aimed to identify which sports policy factors and stakeholders influence the development of athletic career pathways in Paralympic sport. This study used the SPLISS model (De Bosscher et al., 2006, 2015) to cluster sport policy dimensions, along with the social relational model of disability (Thomas, 2004), as a means of critically positioning disability within the sporting context. Among themes and sub-themes generated in the thematic analysis, a list of several parasport-specific policies and support services that influence the development of para-athletes’ career pathways were drawn from the results of this study. It was identified that coaching provision and education, coaches with disability-specific knowledge, and the classification system are the most influential factors during most of the phases of the typical para-athlete’s career pathway. This study suggests that understanding the concept of disability is notably essential when stakeholders must think strategically and adapt management principles from able-bodied sporting contexts and apply them to the parasport context. Therefore, critically positioning disability within policy decision-making processes can strategically inform stakeholders about how to be more efficient in developing para-athletes’ pathways to success.In study 4 (Chapter 7), the lens of the systems theory (Chelladurai, 2009) contoured this study as a helpful tool for understanding how systems or policies, at the level of inputs, throughputs, and outputs, continuously interact with the economic, social, cultural, and political components of the culture and environment of a country. The aim was to identify and categorise contextual factors that influence the parasport system and to examine the extent to which these factors influence the development of para-athletes’ career pathways in Brazil. The thematic analysis resulted in nine main themes: parasport awareness, societal attitudes towards people with an impairment, cultural components, hosting the Paralympic Games, educational components, financial aspects, accessibility, and adapted equipment. The classification system, which is an inherent component of the parasport system, emerged as the ninth theme. The understanding of these elements offered significant insights into the complexity of parasport and reinforced the view that contextual factors strongly influence the parasport system. Furthermore, this study concluded that insofar as parasport is embedded in the complex cultural and national environment, it is not possible to understand parasport and the para-athlete trajectories without understanding the country’s particular context with respect to disability. The last two studies that comprised this doctoral research used quantitative methods. The instrument utilised (i.e., online survey) was grounded on the findings from the three qualitative studies presented above. As para-athletes are the central actors in athlete development pathways and all programmes are built around the particularities of the athletes’ needs, views and perceptions, a total of 345 Brazilian para-athletes, representing 15 Paralympic sports participated in the two final investigations. Therefore, the para-athletes could confirm the factors derived from the qualitative studies. Study 5 (Chapter 8) aimed to analyse how the following factors: the nature of the impairment (i.e., acquired or congenital), the para-athlete’s age when progressing through his/her career phases, and the athlete’s sport classification have influenced the development of para-athletes’ career trajectories in Brazil. The results showed that athletes with a congenital impairment achieved success milestones earlier and started practising sport at a younger age compared to athletes with an acquired impairment. For athletes with an acquired impairment, all phases of the career pathway were found to be slightly shorter (in years), which perhaps is due to residual motor skills developed in previous sports experiences (i.e., before the impairment). Athletes with an acquired impairment also stayed longer at the top, maintaining longer careers, albeit spending less time in each phase. Although it is possible to define the phases of para-athletes’ careers, it seems that traditional age-related athlete pathway development models may not apply to the parasport context. Athletic development in parasport is mostly dependent on disability-related factors, such as nature and severity the impairment and classification, and the person’s residual athletic skills and abilities. Study 6 (Chapter 9) concluded this doctoral research by further investigating, from an athlete’s perspective, the quality and importance of the sports policy and support services that Brazilian para-athletes have received across their athletic career pathways. The combination of sports policy and support services investigated in this study derived from the qualitative study conducted with Brazilian stakeholders (Study 3). The para-athletes confirmed the perspective of the stakeholders and a total of 21 items were deemed important for the development of successful athletic career pathways in Brazil. It was found that para-athletes aligned on what the stakeholders perceived as important in a system for developing successful athletic career pathways in parasport. Another important finding showed that athletes with more severe impairments reported receiving better support services than athletes with less severe impairment. A practical implication of these findings concerns the need for sports policy measures that support specific training methods (based on the various impairment types) and, further, coaches with disability-specific knowledge. Those items were perceived by the athletes as highly crucial in both phases of para-athletes’ careers (i.e., before and after elite phase) and should be taken into consideration by high-performance directors and policymakers when implementing strategies to aid athletes with an impairment to achieve success.Finally, this doctoral research offered an initial conceptual framework encompassing factors on micro-meso-macro levels with a description of phases of athletic career pathways in Paralympic sport from which both practitioners and researchers can base their actions for policy development and implementation towards para-athlete development. This research concluded that the factors that facilitate the development of para-athletes’ career pathways vary depending on the relative importance that a given policy has on certain disability-specific factors, the context in which it operates, and the ways various stakeholders are involved in para-athlete development. Overall, tailormade policy actions considering the disability-specific factors in the long-term may provide a foundation for competitive advantage by delivering more talented athletes for selection into elite sport.

Jaar van publicatie:2019

Trefwoorden:Disability, Paralympic athletes pathways, Paralympic sport, para-athlete development

Toegankelijkheid:Closed