RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MAINSTREAM PARTICIPATION RATES AND ELITE SPORT SUCCESS IN DISABILITY SPORTS

Rinske De Jong,Bart Vanreusel,Rita Van Driel

doi:10.5507/euj.2010.002

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine relationships between participation rates in mainstream and elite sports for persons with a disability and the chieved elite sport success. Data on performances of Dutch athletes of 16 of the 2008 summer Paralympic sports in which the Netherlands were active and on mainstream participation of these 16 sports have been obtained by questionnaires and additional interviews. Spearman's correlation or Kendall's tau were used to analyse relationships in all Paralympic sports and in team and individual sports separately, while correcting for gender differences. It can be confirmed that a two-way relationship is partly present in disability sports; on the one hand there is a supply function from mainstream to elite sports, and on the other hand there is an inspirational function from elite to mainstream sports. However, these correlations were different between females and males and between team sports and individual sports. These findings are relevant for policy making towards an increase in participation rates in disability sports at a mainstream level and towards improving Paralympic success.

Highlights

A growing amount of literature confirms that people with a disability can benefit physically, mentally and socially from a physically active lifestyle as the general population does (Cooper, Quatrano & Axelson, 1999; Durstine, Painter, Franklin, Morgan, Pitetti & Roberts, 2000; Heath & Fentem, 1997; Van der Ploeg, Van der Beek, Van der Woude & Van Mechelen, 2004; Shephard, 1991)
In this popular theoretical model a two-way relationship is assumed between mainstream and elite sports; there is on the one hand a supply function from mainstream sports to elite sports, and on the other hand an inspirational function from elite sports to mainstream sports (Van Bottenburg, 2002; Van Bottenburg, 2003)
To make all data comparable, relative success was calculated by dividing the total points of each sport by the maximal amount of points which could have been achieved for each sport discipline by the Netherlands according to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC)

Summary

Introduction

A growing amount of literature confirms that people with a disability can benefit physically, mentally and socially from a physically active lifestyle as the general population does (Cooper, Quatrano & Axelson, 1999; Durstine, Painter, Franklin, Morgan, Pitetti & Roberts, 2000; Heath & Fentem, 1997; Van der Ploeg, Van der Beek, Van der Woude & Van Mechelen, 2004; Shephard, 1991). Many countries want to increase the participation in mainstream sports for the aforementioned beneficial reasons. Another rationale is to improve Paralympic success (VWS, 2005). It is widely believed that increased mainstream participation will have a positive effect on elite sport success and vice versa. This model is labelled as the ‘double pyramid theory’ (Van Bottenburg, 2002). In a research in 17 European countries a correlation of r = 0.535 (p < 0.01) was found between the number of sport participants active in an organised way and the ratio of medals per million inhabitants during the Olympic games of the period 19922000 (Van Bottenburg, 2002).

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Conclusion