Home advantage in the Winter Paralympic Games 1976\u20132014

Darryl Wilson,Girish Ramchandani

doi:10.1007/s11332-017-0365-6

Abstract

PurposeThere is a limited amount of home advantage research concerned with winter sports. There is also a distinct lack of studies that investigate home advantage in the context of para sport events. This paper addresses this gap in the knowledge by examining home advantage in the Winter Paralympic Games.MethodsUsing a standardised measure of success, we compared the performances of host nations at home with their own performances away from home between 1976 and 2014. Both country level and individual sport level analysis is conducted for this time period. Comparisons are also drawn with the Winter Olympic Games since 1992, the point from which both the Winter Olympic Games and the Winter Paralympic Games have been hosted by the same nations and in the same years.ResultsClear evidence of a home advantage effect in the Winter Paralympic Games was found at country level. When examining individual sports, only alpine skiing and cross country skiing returned a significant home advantage effect. When comparing home advantage in the Winter Paralympic Games with the Winter Olympic Games for the last seven host nations (1992–2014), we found that home advantage was generally more pronounced (although not a statistically significant difference) in the case of the former.ConclusionThe causes of home advantage in the Winter Paralympic Games are unclear and should be investigated further.

Highlights

There is a generally well-established body of academic literature that investigates the phenomenon of home advantage in sport
Clear evidence of a home advantage effect in the Winter Paralympic Games was found at country level
When comparing home advantage in the Winter Paralympic Games with the Winter Olympic Games for the last seven host nations (1992–2014), we found that home & Girish Ramchandani g.ramchandani@shu.ac.uk

Summary

Introduction

There is a generally well-established body of academic literature that investigates the phenomenon of home advantage in sport. Courneya and Carron reviewed studies that documented the extent of the home advantage and concluded that it exists in major team sports [1]. They went on to develop a conceptual framework for home advantage research, according to which ‘performance’ is a function of: game location (i.e. home or away); game location factors that differentially impact on teams competing at home or away from home; and the critical psychological and behavioural states of competitors, coaches and officials. A subsequent review by Carron, Loughead and Bray proposed a slightly revised conceptual framework [2]. The revised model incorporated the critical physiological factors of competitors and coaches (e.g. testosterone and jet lag)

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