“I Can't Be Standing Up Out There”: Communicative Performances of (Dis)Ability in Wheelchair Rugby

Abstract

Sport and performance theory have several important yet underdeveloped intersections. Locating these intersections in the properties of play, both areas are particularly useful in examining displays of the disabled body. Wheelchair rugby is one of the fastest growing and most visible wheelchair sports in the world. Participation in the sport offers many benefits for physically disabled persons. However, these benefits may be undercut by the sport's classification system, which determines who will compete and at what level. This paper highlights tactical performances of disability that challenge ableist assumptions. In these performances, athletes engage in sandbagging, performing more disability to receive a favorable classification from physical therapists. While these fluid, malleable performances of play resist the medicalized gaze that Others disabled persons by affixing disability as a static marker of identity, these performances also ironically foster a form of surveillance that imitates the ableist gaze and reifies traditional notions of ability.