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Description
While the multifactoriality of Olympic performance is well documented, there is little work that specifically addresses the factors of Paralympic performance. In this paper, we will present i) the performance strategies implemented by Paralympic athletes; and ii) the variety and complexity of these experiences, which are at the interface of high-level sport practice, but also of impairment and social representations of disability. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with athletes with motor and/or sensory impairments who were involved in a selection project for the Tokyo Paralympic Games. The analysis of the results reveals i) that the mobilisation of the different factors of performance intensifies among all athletes but also that it evolves according to the time of life; ii) that athletes develop strategies of adaptation and/or overcompensation of their deficiencies with the aim of performing; and iii) that the social representations of disabilities play an essential role in the identity constructions of high-level disabled athletes.
