Abstract
While the concept of legacy of sporting mega-events has been highly debated and filled with the promise to deliver tangible and measurable benefits, in the context of the Paralympics, defining legacy has been a challenge, due to a lack of universally understood and accepted nature and objectives of the Paralympic Games themselves. Although many authors and disability rights activists expect the Paralympics to accelerate agenda of inclusion of disabled people, a growing number of studies found that the Paralympics misrepresent disability and the reality of disabled people, and consequently reinforce negative stereotypes. Informed by critical disability studies, the central research aim of this article is to examine the social legacies of the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games for disabled people as identified in the media coverage of three selected periodicals, The Guardian, and O Globo. The article presents a summary of the qualitative analysis of the media coverage related to the topic of Paralympic legacy and disability rights, highlights its central themes and offers a discussion of the findings through the lens of critical disability studies.
Highlights
No other event can empower individuals through social inclusion and societal opportunity like the Paralympic Games
This study aims to contribute to this discussion by offering a critical analysis of the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic legacy for disabled people
The understanding of mega-event legacy is still evolving, and the literature on the sporting mega-events lists some long-term benefits to hosting Paralympics. Some scholars questioned such benefits of hosting major sporting events, in particular pointing out that the long-term benefits from hosting Paralympics, while viable, are hard to identify (LEGG; GILBERT, 2011)
Summary
No other event can empower individuals through social inclusion and societal opportunity like the Paralympic Games. No other event can change the views of so many millions of people or stimulate Governments to create investment programmes or pass new legislation that will benefit many generations of individuals with impairments. This is why, in my view, the Paralympic Games are the world's number one sporting event for social inclusion, helping to promote the rights of persons with disabilities (Sir Philip Craven, IPC President, 2016). The authors considered legacy as medium- to long-term impacts of the sporting mega-event, so that the events “amount to more than a few great moments, no matter how extraordinary or inspiring they might be” The authors considered legacy as medium- to long-term impacts of the sporting mega-event, so that the events “amount to more than a few great moments, no matter how extraordinary or inspiring they might be” (HOLT; RUTA, 2015, p. 1)
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