User:HarleyForet/sandbox/Final Paper on Parasports

Disabled athletes playing basketball

Karate in Parasports

Introduction

Sports are a huge cultural favorite in the United States as they bring everyone together. Millions of people take time out of their busy schedules to watch, or attend, a sports game at least once a week. As fans are entertained by the sport itself, they do not recognize who is playing these games. These world-famous sports players are healthy, in the sense of being physically fit, but not everyone is. So, what happens to individuals who may have physical or mental disabilities and want to play sports themselves? One word: parasports. Parasports, or paralympic sports, are sports only played by individuals with psychiatric or/and physical disability. The intensity level of the parasport and deciding on which athletes play with who depends on the following characteristics: the psychiatric and physical disability along with if the disability is short term or long term. This article's main focus will be to demonstrate the effects paralympic sports have on the para-athlete from all different aspects of their lives.

Terminology

Paloma Barbosa de Lima and Ana Cristina de Jesus Alves are two authors who performed a 2020 case study on if participating in parasports benefit disabled adolescence into finding careers in the future. From their understanding, "Paralympic sports, according to the Brazilian Paralympic Committee, came from the Greek word 'para' which means 'side, parallel,' and the word 'Olympic.' It emerged after World War II when it was used in England as a rehabilitator of war veterans with spinal cord injury. Shaped upon the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games were created to meet the needs of people with disabilities and thus became a high - performance event in the world," . It should also be noted that parasports and paralympic sports are both interchangeably with the following terms: adaptive/adapted sports, disability/disabled sports.

Types of Parasports

Paralympic sports are split up between the two main disabilities including: mental and physical. Although some may see parasports as a separation between disabilities, two authors, S. Djobova and I. Kirilova explained the true meaning of these particular sports. "The IPC and the European Commission worked together as part of the 2024 European Year of Education Through Eyes (EYES). This partnership enabled the European Commission to utilize the social and educational values of Paralympic Sport to meet the objectives of the EYES project - to increase knowledge, skills and social capabilities such as teamwork, solidarity, and fair play,". S. Djobova and I. Kirilova like to add emphasize to the idea that the sports apart of parasports, as a whole, are changing with the times of today.

Mental Disability

What began with the Special Olympics movement in the 1960s, this organization introduced particular sports for people with mental challenges. The idea of having summer camps felt as the best alternative for getting people with mental disabilities involved at the time without the pressure of feeling stressed. Now today, as we all know, Special Olympics is highly popular due to giving these individuals a chance to be themselves in a sport they love.

"In this respect, we conducted a descriptive analysis of the environmental factors associated with Paralympic sports, such as attitudes (satisfaction, attitudes of friends, family, the team and self - image), support and relationships (family support, friends and professionals), services and assistive technology (maintenance of AT, benefits and assistance received), systems and policies, which may act as barriers or facilitators to parasport participation,". These are the words from Marianne Pinheiro Marques and Ana Cristina de Jesus Alves, who conducted a scientific questionnaire to see what environmental factors play a role in parasports. Having this questionnaire let the Paralympic athletes that participated in this now feel comfortable enough to tell stories about themselves that maybe no one has ever heard before. Overall, from a mental disability standpoint, the environmental factors seem to benefit the athlete. "As observed, people with disability become more productive and socially active with increasing time since injury, thereby dedicating more time to the sport, which helps overcome their disabilities more easily, increasing their motivation and functional levels," .

Physical Disability

In the year 1911, "Cripples Olympiad" in the United States was the earliest opportunity for physically disabled individuals to play sports. World War II was a major factor for paralympic sports, as recently injured military men used sports as part of their rehabilitation processes. There was no specific name or idea for this organization yet, but eventually, time will create a fascinating opportunity for military veterans.

One military man named Jim Winthers, along with other military veterans, formed the Disabled Sports USA corporation in 1967. This corporation did just what was done in 1911, by helping recently injured military men use sports as part of their rehabilitation process. The National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) is another corporation that is still very successful today. The National Sports Center for the Disabled has over a thousand volunteers working alongside quite a handful of certified instructors. This corporation grew in size due to the popularity increase towards parasports. Without receiving the true recognition paralympic sports deserve, this along with all the other disabled organization, would no longer exist. Although the authors Paloma Barbosa de Lime and Ana Cristina de Jesus Alves were discussed in the beginning of this article, they should also be considered here as well. These two authors used their study to see if parasports benefit disabled adolescents into finding careers in the future. "Therefore, this research aimed to present the process of prescription, choice, and follow - up of AT in competitive sports as practiced by adolescents with disabilities using a theoretical model of AT validated in the literature,". The term AT, which is the abbreviation for Assistive Technology, is used plenty throughout the case study. Paloma Barbosa de Lima and Ana Cristina de Jesus Alves demonstrate that these specified organizations truly benefit the physically disabled into setting themselves up for success in the future.

Sports

Nowadays, our everyday sports have transformed into being disability friendly. Also, new and upcoming sports are being created to be specifically for disabled athletes (goalball). As sports become more accessible to people with disabilities, society as a whole is becoming more accepting to para-athletes. "Playing an adapted sport has a positive impact on physical and psychological factors, especially behavior - related abilities, including self - esteem, self - efficacy and sense of belonging," .

Forms of Training in Parasports

Inspiratory muscle training (IMT) is one training technique used and has a huge success rate for para-athletes. This particular training boost respiratory function and the athlete's physical being, not only for the sport, but for the real world also. Inspiratory muscle training is generally useful for aerobic fitness, but working on one's breathing techniques is incredibly important no matter what the sport is. Physical training for any paralympic sport produces lasting, positive mental health but also other physical functions. Physical functions meaning the ability to move the muscles in your body easier and increase the time of movement. One may believe that parasports only have a positive impact on a para-athlete, but some authors prove otherwise. Marques and Alves, who were discussed earlier, prove that there can be ups and downs to training techniques in paralympic sports.

The Downs and Ups of Paralympic Sports

The Downs

One major question came up in 2022 by Jill Parnell and her team, which caused them to conduct a scientific questionnaire. Their question was if athletes with spinal cord injuries (SCI) and their coaches understand the overall consequences from not having the proper nutritional education in parasports. "Coaches have been cited as a source for nutrition information and a preferred source for dietary supplement advice among para-athletes. However, SN knowledge among coaches of para-athletes has been reported to be poor,". The right nutrition is one of many factors that keep a person healthy, especially an athlete. By being disabled, para-athletes already have an addition of struggles just to keep up with the sport itself. Now by not having the proper nutrition their bodies need to be fully successful, athletes are more likely to have further injury.

These negative issues with parasports go hand-in-hand. Sometimes, depending on the severeness of the disability, some athletes struggle with more pain when playing the specific sport. Felix Cote - Leclerc is another author who insist on knowing the signs of when to stay away from parasports. "However, playing sports intensively can cause injuries and reduce quality of life: 'You can wear out faster the muscles that need to be functional to help you in your everyday life.' (P4). Some participants say they experienced stress related to the pressure to perform in competitive sports,". Although staying active and in shape when you are disabled is overly critical, it is important for the person to discuss their interest in participating in paralympic sports with their doctor beforehand.

The Ups

Going back on Jill Parnell's scientific questionnaire, she concluded from her research on nutrition that not just one individual team was being pinpointed. "An important consideration is that our questionnaire was distributed to a broad range on athletes rather than approaching a single team. While this adds breadth to our conclusions, the nature of our recruitment is such that we may have had an increased participation from those with an inherent interest in performance nutrition,". Diversity plays a major role in paralympic sports, rather the diversity is race or disability related. Having the opportunity to include just about every person possible, encourages others to feeling welcomed. Similar to the negatives, the positive ideas with parasports go hand-in-hand also.

Djobova and Kirilova also discuss the social importance of parasports, but this time, the authors consider bonding. "The most useful description related to the sport outcomes we have found in the research of Robert Putnam. He describes social capital as a blend of social life, such as networks, trust and norms, which allows participants to act together to pursue shared objectives," . Many disabled individuals have a really challenging time putting themselves out there to make friends, or just to social with others. By participating in these sports, the athletes prove to have a commonality with the others involved. Communicating with the teammates and coaches give a sigh of relief as bonding and friendships come naturally.

Conclusion

Disabled individuals rely heavily on their parents, or legal guardians, simply because achieving an everyday task can be challenging for them. We, as human beings, like to believe that children have minds of their own, but everyone knows that children react off of their adults in charge. Combining children and disabilities together as one makes parenting ten times harder, especially when deciding on your child's wellbeing. Leading author Janine Coates and co-author P. David Howe published an article on the importance of parent involvement with para-athletes and how their opinions on parasports can affect the child altogether. "The implication here is that parents are key stakeholders in providing opportunity for participation in sport at club level, where talent might be identified and nurtured. What is missing from the literature, therefore, is an examination of the role played by parents of elite youth athletes in not only initiating, but also supporting a young athlete's career in competitive parasports,". Coates and Howe's article relies on a questionnaire given to parents of disabled athletes under the age of 25 years old. The prime issues of high cost, limited play opportunity, and further injury are all brough up by the parents in the article, but most parents consider parasports as a blessing. "Jane summarizes this: 'There had been such a lot of trauma and upset in the early stages of Blake's life, so it was an absolute joy to see him participating and having friends and you know that's life enhancing as a mother, isn't it?' (Jane),".

All in all, parasports really have a contradicting factor to them. Some focus more on the positives and enjoy the life that was handed to them, while others depend on the negatives. Similar to any other sport, activity, or just life issue, there will always be two sides to choose from.