Informing Future Paralympic Media Approaches: The Perspective of Canadian Paralympic Athletes

Media coverage of the Paralympic Games can affect how athletes with impairment and disability sport are perceived by the public. Researchers investigating media representations of disability sport have focused on how Paralympic athletes and disability sport are represented by the media. Limited research, however, has examined how Paralympic athletes perceive these representations of themselves and the meanings they attribute to such representations. The purpose of this study was to examine how Paralympic athletes make meaning of discourses of disability within Paralympic coverage. This involved semi-structured photo-elicitation interviews with eight Canadian Paralympic athletes. A reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) was used to analyze the data utilizing Foucault's notions of discourse, power, and technologies of the self. The findings demonstrate that Paralympic athletes made meaning of the discourses of disability within Paralympic media coverage by drawing on their lived and media experiences. Athletes with more media experience articulated problematizations of dominant discourses of disability in Paralympic media coverage and engagement in technologies of the self. Knowledge generated from this study offers media personnel an informed understanding of how Paralympic athletes understand representations of disability and disability sport. This knowledge may offer insight and inform future media approaches of disability sport and the Paralympic Games.

Social entrepreneurship in sport: a peripheral country perspective

For the past decade, scholars have been working towards developing a robust theory of social entrepreneurship in sport (SES). However, SES theory remains void of peripheral country perspectives and thus perpetuates the Eurocentric views of entrepreneurship. This paper used a decolonial feminist lens and Whittemore and Knafl's methodology to conduct an integrated review of SES literature written in or about a peripheral country context. The review examined how scholarship from and about this context had considered geographical and culturally specific perspectives in the development of SES theory. A total of n = 1971 papers were retrieved, with only n = 12 providing relevant peripheral country context. This scarcity of literature indicates that the current theory of SES lacks peripheral country perspectives. Many papers in this review (n = 5) are written by authors in or from a peripheral country. Their contributions to SES literature revealed the decolonial feminist approaches that centralize alternative perspectives and added plurality to the definition of SES. The findings revealed the nuanced theoretical approaches to SES and highlighted the gaps in this context. The review shows how, despite the rise in social enterprises that focus on gender equity and the economic inclusion of women, gendered studies were still very scarce.

It's classified: Classification, disability rights and Commonwealth Games

Sport events are often held up as opportunities to showcase excellence and further access to sport participation. The ethos of accessibility has come to the forefront of many events, but none more so than the Commonwealth Games (CG). CG uses the ethos of inclusivity to bring the Commonwealth (CW) community together and utilizes sport to celebrate, uphold and drive its vision and values: Humanity, Destiny, Equality. However there remain significant gaps in participation opportunities and the realization of equality through CG, particularly for lower resource CW nations. CG is also the only global multisport event that integrates athletes with disabilities (para sport athletes), and yet there persist significant constraints to the creation of equitable opportunities for full participation for many para sport athletes. Shalala wrote “How can you effectively achieve integration (during CG), while ensuring the gulf between the best and the rest doesn't become a seismic divide?” We echo Shalala's concerns. Through this review we intend to examine sport classification as exemplary of the opportunities and hindrances for CG to actualize their values of “equality, humanity and destiny” for para sport and athletes, specifically from developing CW nations, and guard against the growing chasm “between the best and the rest”. Of significance, we consider, through a human rights lens and the concept of structural violence, the impact of sport classification on the integration of para sport and athletes at CGs, and the future of Commonwealth-wide participation and the integrated model itself.

Canadian women's experiences in mixed-sex sport: Wheelchair rugby

Wheelchair rugby was developed in Canada in the 1970s and named an official Paralympic sport in 2000. Wheelchair rugby is one of the few Paralympic or Olympic sports that includes mixed-sex participation. Where historically women with disabilities have had limited access to elite sporting competition, wheelchair rugby provides the opportunity for women to represent themselves as competitive and physical beings, capable of the physicality and aggressive nature of the sport alongside men. This project looks to fill the gap in research considering women's experiences in these potentially highly gendered sport settings. This study uses a thematic analysis approach to explore female athletes' lived experiences of participation in wheelchair rugby. Five provincial athletes were interviewed and shared their complex experiences competing in wheelchair rugby.

Theorizing Community for Sport Management Research and Practice

Community is a context for much research in sport, sport management, and sport policy, yet relatively few authors explicitly articulate the theoretical frameworks with which they interrogate the concept. In this paper, we draw from communitarian theory and politics in order to contribute to a robust discussion and conceptualization of community in and for sport management research and practice. We provide a synthesis of current sport management and related research in order to highlight contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches to studying community. We distinguish between community as a context, as an outcome, as a site for struggle or resistance, as well as a form of regulation or social control. We then advance a critical communitarian agenda and consider the practical implications and considerations for research and practice. This paper synthesizes current research and establishes a foundation upon which sport management scholars and practitioners might critically reflect on community and deliberatively articulate its implications in both future research and practice.

Access to Physical Activity and Sport and the Effects of Isolation and Cordon Sanitaire During COVID-19 for People With Disabilities in Scotland and Canada

People with a disability are more at risk of experiencing inequalities in relation to sporting and physical activity opportunities, COVID-19 and the resulting restrictions stand to exacerbate these inequalities. This research directly contributes toward the World Health Organization, global research roadmap priority to explore “the impact of restrictive public health measures (e.g., quarantine, isolation, cordon sanitaire).” Social loneliness and social isolation have a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of individuals, therefore, it is imperative to gain an understanding of the effects of self-isolation and shielding during Covid-19 for people with disabilities to help those in policy and agency positions address these issues. This research utilized a qualitative approach, to speak with people with a disability, athletes and non-athletes and those in a position of management and policy making. Six online focus groups, with people participating in sport and physical activity, using live captioning, chat functions, and an online written discussion forum; through Project Echo website as part of a wider study on sport and accessibility were utilized. The study also drew on interviews and one of the focus groups was with senior policy makers and regional managers responsible for disability sport in Scotland.

Exploring the characteristics of crowdsourcing: An online observational study

This article examines the application of crowdsourcing in research studies. The aim of this study is to understand how crowdsourcing is being used in research by undertaking a content analysis of studies posted to an online site designed to facilitate crowdsourced research. While there are a number of websites that facilitate crowdsourcing, this study provides an analysis only of research studies posted on crowdcrafting.org . Characteristics of crowdsourcing, proposed by Estellés-Arolas and González-Ladrón-de-Guevara, served as the framework for the content analysis, and research projects were evaluated as to how they addressed each of the proposed criteria. This article concludes with recommendations for researchers undertaking the design and implementation of projects employing crowdsourcing.

Towards a community centred approach to corporate community involvement in the sporting events agenda

The purpose of this paper was to examine ways that corporations can make a greater contribution to civic and community development through strategic ties to a city's development agenda surrounding the hosting of sporting events. Using the perspective of Corporate Community Involvement (CCI), we draw upon data collected as part of a larger study on sporting events and community development to explore how cities and corporations can make socially responsible contributions to communities. The guiding principles of community involvement in decision-making, full public disclosure and transparency, and grassroots legacy planning underscore the importance of community-based strategies for CCI. We offer three related strategies: comprehensive social and community impact assessments, facilitation of local knowledge capital and providers, and cross-sectoral management event programming as ways for corporations to begin to engage in CCI activities related to events. These strategies offer opportunities for organisation to use sport to make a valuable contribution to communities and community development activities.

Development of a PCR protocol for sensitive detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in water samples

The development of a reliable method of using PCR for detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in environmental samples with oligonucleotide primers which amplify a portion of the sequence encoding the small (18S) subunit of rRNA producing a 435-bp product was demonstrated. The PCR assay was found to provide highly genus-specific detection of Cryptosporidium spp. after release of nucleic acids from oocysts by a simple freeze-thaw procedure. The assay routinely detected 1 to 10 oocysts in purified oocyst preparations, as shown by direct microscopic counts and by an immunofluorescence assay. The sensitivity of the PCR assay in some seeded environmental water samples was up to 1,000-fold lower. However, this interference was eliminated by either flow cytometry or magnetic-antibody capture. Sensitivity was also improved 10- to 1,000-fold by probing of the PCR product on dot blots with an oligonucleotide probe detected by chemiluminescence. Confirmation of the presence of Cryptosporidium oocysts in water samples from the outbreak in Milwaukee, Wis., was obtained with this technique, and PCR was found to be as sensitive as immunofluorescence for detection of oocysts in wastewater concentrates.