Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the status of Paralympic hopefuls' athletic identity and how this identity was impacted by the training and competition cessation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews that explored the experiences of 29 Paralympic hopefuls who compete in thirteen different Paralympic sports. A thematic analysis yielded two superordinate themes: a) Prominent athletic identity, multiplicity over exclusivity; b) Various Impact on AI: Mental adaptation helps overcome the lack of sport participation. Participants in this study possessed prominent strong athletic identities from the benefits of sport participation. Their prioritized athletic role still remains despite setbacks due to the pandemic. However, athletes identified with multiple roles rather than an exclusive athletic identity during COVID-19. As for the impacts on identity, the severity of challenges are determined by the mindset of the athletes. All of the athletes experienced a decreased amount of time and physical participation in their sport. Paralympians whose sole focus was on the loss of physical participation were impacted the most. Athletes who felt unchallenged did so because of their mental adaptation. Through a positive outlook and mentality, athletes were able to effectively cope and not dwell on the negative aspects brought on by the pandemic. In conclusion, having a strong AI did not necessarily coincide with a negative impact on identity from COVID-19, and those who do not possess a strong AI felt their AI was unchallenged by the pandemic. More importantly, Paralympians' mindset of how they view and interpret their AI is crucial to how the individual's AI is affected by the sport disruption of COVID-19.
Highlights
The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused a worldwide pandemic, most strongly recognized during its surge in 2020, when all communities and societies were forced to adopt drastic changes to curb its spread
The purpose of our study is to examine the status of Paralympic hopefuls’ athletic identity and if that identity has been impacted from the training and competition cessation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
As the first attempt seeking to understand how participating in sport and Paralympic Games would result in developing a disability sport Athletic identity (AI) and how it would be impacted by COVID-19, we employed an exploratory qualitative methodology
Summary
The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused a worldwide pandemic, most strongly recognized during its surge in 2020, when all communities and societies were forced to adopt drastic changes to curb its spread. An announcement made Mar. 24th, 2020 declared that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games would be postponed for 1 year, causing great disruption among athletes who had trained long and hard for years to participate. Paralympians’ Athletic Identity and COVID-19 calendars and routines. This undoubtedly presented challenges as they had limited to no access to effective training environments, partners and teammates (Schinke et al, 2020). The effects of the global pandemic on athletes’ Athletic Identity, an important component of athlete’s self-concept and health and performance outcomes, is still to be explored. Athletic identity (AI) was examined based on sport-related benefits (i.e., physical self-efficacy, enhanced body image), and with the premise that it would be manifested most strongly in athletes whose self-concepts were significantly tied into the athlete role (Martin, 1999). Developing a strong athletic identity can be salient and beneficial for active athletes, athletes with too exclusive of an AI may have emotional difficulty adjusting to non-sport participation (Werthner and Orlick, 1986)
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