Abstract
Athlete health and sport performance research for athletes with disabilities has increased substantially over the years as the level of competition and intensity in Paralympic sport has grown. However, relative to able-bodied sport, there remains some key areas of parasport research which are distinctly lacking. Athlete recovery, as a counterbalance to training stress and an important factor in preventing adverse health consequences such as illness and injury, is one of these understudied areas for elite para-athletes. Thus, the purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to understand factors impacting recovery among Paralympic athletes, based on practitioner perspectives, with the aim of providing insightful guidance for applied practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 North American sport practitioners who worked with elite para-athletes. Through thematic analysis, five main themes about optimizing athlete recovery in various populations of para-athletes were developed: a) prioritize the simple concepts, b) get to know the whole athlete, c) experience matters, d) musculoskeletal factors, and e) non-training load. Collectively, these results highlight how humanistic approaches to care, augmented by individual athlete expertise, extensive education, and a consideration of fundamental lifestyle factors is exceedingly important for para-athlete recovery. This study further describes that the approach to recovery among para-athletes, a diverse population, is uniquely complex from that of able-bodied sport and warrants scholarly attention.
Highlights
Paralympic sport has evolved exponentially, with over 4000 athletes competing in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games[1] compared to the first Stoke Mandeville Games, as part of the 1948 London Olympics, which saw 16 athletes compete.[2]
Health status of the athlete has been identified as a key determinant of sport performance[5] where derivation from optimal health status negatively influences overall team[6] and individual competitions success.[7]. This requires attention in Paralympic sport since epidemiological studies on sport-related injuries and illness indicate that higher rates of illness have been reported in Paralympic athletes and higher incidences of injury were reported during the London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games when compared to their related Olympic Games.[8]
We found that many practitioners in the current study valued the practitioner-athlete relationship, aligning with a humanistic approach to athlete care that may be heightened in parasport
Summary
Paralympic sport has evolved exponentially, with over 4000 athletes competing in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games[1] compared to the first Stoke Mandeville Games, as part of the 1948 London Olympics, which saw 16 athletes compete.[2]. Sport-related injuries are a concern among para-athletes as the combination of temporary injury alongside physical impairment may present functional limitations making activities of daily living more difficult and yielding greater quality of life consequences.[3,9,10] the consequences of illness or injury do pose added challenges, highlighting the importance of athlete health monitoring and risk prevention in Reviewer: Danielle Alexander (McGill University, Canada) David Legg (Mount Royal University, Canada)
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