An Exploration of Sports Volunteers Experiences at the 2012 Paralympic Games

Ellie MayLeeds Metropolitan University

e.may@leedsmet.ac.uk

Outline of the Presentation

• Introduce Paralympic Games• Provide overview of PhD research• Context & rationale for the study• Disability studies• Research methodology• Themes

2012 Paralympic Games

• What comes to mind as you watch these clips?

• Are Paralympic athletes ‘superhuman’?

• What position do non-paralympic sports women/men hold in society?

Intro to Paralympics

Superhuman Clip

PhD StudyParalympic Gamesmakers

Volunteering at the Paralympics• What are volunteers reasons

for volunteering at the Paralympics?

• What are their expectations for volunteering at the event?

• What previous experience do volunteers have of volunteering?

• What are the experiences of volunteers during the Paralympic Games?

Understandings of Disability• How do volunteers

understandings of disability, disability sport and disabled athletes evolve as a result of their volunteering experience?

Context

• Sports event volunteering

• Reflexive (Hustinx & Lammertyn, 2003)

• Importance of volunteers in staging events

• Motivation, satisfaction & commitment

Why disability sport?

• Limited studies exploring volunteerism within disability sport

• Research replicates methods used in mainstream sport

• Issues relating to disability neglected?• Paralympics neglected?• Paralympics – driver to change attitudes and

perceptions or reinforce stereotypes?

Disability StudiesMedical Model Social Model

Problem

Defective

Limitation

Needing care

Passive

Brave

Society

Change

Environment

Attitudes

Restrictions

Barriers

Application to sport?

Medical Model• Individual deficiency• Biological limitation• Incapable of competing

in sportSocial Model• Structure and practice of

sport is disabling • Sports changed to

account for differences

Methodology

• Qualitative study• Research approved by the International Paralympic

Committee (IPC)• Series of 4 interviews with Games Makers• Games Makers recruited through social media• 27 interviews prior to the Paralympics (July/August

2012)• 17 during Paralympics (September 2012)• 25 post Paralympics (November/December 2012)• Final interviews (May/June 2013)

The Games Makers

• 19 female/8 male• Diverse age range (between 21 & 60 years old)• Geographically dispersed (York to East Sussex)• Range of previous volunteering experience• Varied Games Maker role (e.g. Event Services,

Field of Play, Last Mile, Transport)• Paralympics only or Olympics and Paralympics

Interview Topics

Prior

• Previous experience of volunteering

• Reasons for volunteering

• Experience of recruitment, selection and training

• Details of role • Expectations• Understandings of

disability, disability sport and the ‘disabled’ athlete

During

• Immediate reactions to the Paralympics

• Surprises?

After

• Reflections• Highlights• Problems• Revisit understandings

of disability, disability sport and the ‘disabled’ athlete

• Future plans to volunteer

What Games Makers think of Disability

• “Someone who has difficulty in doing something or a physical impairment that stops them doing something that an able bodied person would be able to do, that restricts them” (Ashley)

• “Disability? I suppose its some form of impairment that prevents you from doing something as readily or easily as someone who doesn’t have that impairment. (Angela)

• “Some sort of impairment whether its physical or mental but something that stops that person from being able…some sort of impairment that holds people back in some way” (Katherine)

• “I guess something that makes you different from somebody else. I suppose part of your physical or mental functioning that isn’t conventionally classed as normal” (Alex)

Games Makers views of Paralympians and Disability Sport (1)

Inspiring?• “I think the Paralympics, its more inspiring, more shocking, its harder for them as

they’ve got more to deal with, emotionally and physically which would make it harder” (Rachel)

• “Its more challenging. For example, the wheelchair tennis that I’m working on for me as an able bodied person to stand on a tennis court and hit a ball with a racket and run side to side and back and forth is relatively easy but then in a wheelchair having that speed and the mobility to do the same thing I suppose it makes it much more challenging and for the athletes overcoming something. I think I have a lot more respect for them.” (Katherine)

Easier?• “Wheelchair tennis, so, it’s a similar kind of sport but its slower you know the ball is

allowed to bounce twice so it’s a slower pace obviously so yeh its easier to manage I feel more at ease with the Paralympics.” (MacKenzie)

Games Makers views of Paralympians and Disability Sport (2)

Society?

• “the first thing that comes to mind is good on you for not letting people hold you back because I don’t think it’s the disability that would hold them back, it’s the peoples perceptions of their disability and their limits and then imposing these limits on them.” (Melissa)

• “They’re athletes, the same as the Olympians, you know ones that are at the very top of their game. I don’t know if you’ve come across the comedian Laurence Clark who has cerebral palsy? It really irates me, he talks about everything he does in life people say its ‘inspiring’ and he said I’ve had children, that’s inspiring, why because I’m in a wheelchair? What difference does that make? And it really hit home to me because its true, the British disabled football team could be knocked out in the first round of the Paralympics but they would still be called inspiring but you know our own footballers get to the semi-finals of the European Cup or something and their deemed as useless. That to me says a lot actually about society, you know the ‘ahh’ syndrome and how inspiring and in fact their just living their lives the same as anyone else.” (Tilly)

Views during the Paralympics (1)• “Absolute admiration. I just don’t know how they do it. I couldn’t sit on a horse

you know with two arms, two legs and everything else I just don’t know how they do it quite frankly” (Angela)

• “I think if you see someone in a wheelchair you almost feel sorry for them, you know what a shame and you would be inclined to say do you want any help? Can I help you? They don’t need or want that, they’re totally at ease, independent and can do everything. I suppose its opened my eyes to that in a way that they’re no different.” (Katherine)

• “What has amazed me is the quality of the tennis played. I thought wheelchair tennis, the quality would be low and slow games, boring! You know it won’t have much excitement, but on the contrary! I think the quality of the play is good, these guys are athletes you know we under rate and under estimate them but they are athletes. As a disabled person myself I watch them and think wow!” (MacKenzie)

Views during the Paralympics (2)

Normalisation?

• “It was actually interesting watching the athletes because you might see, there was a guy whose got literally nothing from the thigh down and there’s another female rider that has no legs and you see them in the chair and then they’re put on the horses and you start watching them ride and after a while you don’t even see the disability, the disability just seems to disappear, you just forget totally.” (Diane)

Next Steps?

• Transcription• Data analysis• Final interview

• Any questions, comments, suggestions?

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International Paralympic Committee (2012) ‘London 2012’ [Internet], International Paralympic Committee. Available from: <http://www.paralympic.org/Events/London2012/AboutUs> [Accessed 14th May 2012]

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