Empowering ParaSports – Fostering Fairness and Equity from the Grassroots to the Elite

People with disabilities generally have lower access to society as a whole, leisure activities and physical activity in general. 

This project aims to contribute to a more equal and fairer sports movement that includes people with intellectual disabilities, movement and vision impairment. A sports movement that promotes health and enables more people with disabilities to participate both on a broad and elite level.

This research project consists of two sub-projects: 

1: Improving sport in association for people with intellectual disabilities

This research project is being conducted together with the Swedish Parasports Association to increase the understanding of good sport in association for people with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this study is to expand the understanding of what is needed to create a sports activity that works well. This is to contribute with knowledge that Parasportförbundet and Mid Sweden University can translate into educational initiatives for sports associations in Jämtland and Sweden and integrate Miduniversity’s own sports science programmes – this with the goal that more people with intellectual disabilities find an active leisure time that they enjoy and continue with. The specific purpose of this research study is to investigate what associations do that makes it work well for adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities. 

2: The impact of the track profile on cross-country and biathlon performance for people with mobility or visual impairment. 

This project aims to investigate the impact of the track profile on the performance of athletes with mobility or visual impairment in cross-country skiing and biathlon. By studying how different pathways affect athletes with different types and levels of disability, the research aims to achieve the following: increase understanding of how the track profile affects performance based on different disabilities, evaluate the para-courses at Östersunds ski stadium, improve athletes’ competition preparation, contribute to policy and rule changes linked to the International Ski and Biathlon Federation’s homologisation manual for para-competitions.