Research summary · Para sport
Para-athlete interviews reveal belonging alongside persistent participation barriers
Online interviews explored the sporting experiences of 19 national-level Team USA Para athletes, including 11 women and eight men, with a mean age of 31. Participants represented eleven sports and four broad groups of eligible impairments. Analysis used a socioecological framework to connect personal experiences with social and organisational conditions.
- Publication year
- 2026
- First published online
- Publication type
- Phenomenological qualitative interview study with consensual qualitative analysis
- Journal
- BMJ Open
- Population / context
- Paralympic sport · Eleven summer and winter sports
What the publication reports
Athletes described family support, inclusive environments and rehabilitation as important entry pathways, while delayed awareness, costs, healthcare access, travel and balancing sport with work or family created difficulties. They also described greater self-acceptance, resilience and belonging. These accounts help identify support priorities without estimating how frequently every Para athlete experiences them.
Limits and interpretation
A small US elite sample cannot represent all impairment groups, grassroots participants or other countries. Interviews involve recall and social-desirability bias, and online recruitment excludes some experiences. Reported benefits are not causal evidence that sport improves health. A companion paper uses the same interview dataset and is not an independent replication.
Read the source
Consult the original record for the full author list, methods, references, funding and competing-interest disclosures.
Team USA Paralympic athletes' experiences with sport participation: a socioecological qualitative study.
Original publication / indexed recordPMID: 42767756DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-116073Full text at the sourceReader discussion
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