Expériences et effets biographiques du sport adapté de haut niveau. Étude de trajectoires sportives et professionnelles d’athlètes catégorisés comme ayant une déficience intellectuelle

Abstract

During year 2009, the organization of sport for people labeled as intellectual or psychic disabled has been modified by two events: elite athletes of the French federation of adapted sport (FFSA) were recognized officially as high-level athletes by the government, then they were reintegrated to the paralympic movement. In this context, in 2010, training structures called “pôle France” were created for the high-level athletes from the FFSA. This article, based on an ethnographic research, offers to update any inflection or changes in life course and identity that can be generated for athletes labeled as intellectually disabled, by joining a career of “high-level sport”. The experience of sport intensification, improvement of success of competitive practice, leads to the expression of a pride that, outside the sport world, is often discreet, and concomitantly some stigma perdure. For most athletes, their experience in the France Center result in a distancing towards medico-social world, and create a desire for participation in adapted sport in long-term, contradicting their supposed desire for inclusion in the ordinary world.