Faculty
Health Sciences
Supervisor Name
Laura Misener
Keywords
parasport, para-sport, paralympics, covid, covid-19, pandemic, disability sport
Description
The pandemic has impacted the casual/non-sport, recreational, and elite para-sport experience by emphasizing social isolation, career uncertainty, training quality, and accessibility. To further understand the impacts of the pandemic on the development of para-sport, researchers must learn from the lived experiences of para-sport participants. This poster aims to examine the lived experiences of parasport participants and the implications on parasport development during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Quotes from para-sport participants were collected from online forums on the study (Project Echo) website and through live, virtual discussions facilitated by Project Echo researchers. 6 themes were found from the data set. This poster explores the 5 subthemes identified under the COVID-19 theme: (1) Safety; (2) Accessibility; (3) Participation in Physical Activity; (4) Future of Events; and (5) Mental Health. In conclusion, the pandemic has magnified existing inequities in para-sport. Policy-makers and sport facilitators should utilize the pandemic as an opportunity to address and solve existing issues faced by para-sport participants by including participants in decision-making processes.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Laura Misener for supervising my research experience, Denise Kamyuka for providing guidance throughout our work on Project Echo, and Dr. Misener's research team for accepting me into the team as an undergraduate student. I would also like to thank Western Research, Western Libraries, and Student Experience for providing this USRI opportunity.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Poster
Included in
Learnings from the Pandemic's Impact on Parasport: An Analysis of Parasport Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The pandemic has impacted the casual/non-sport, recreational, and elite para-sport experience by emphasizing social isolation, career uncertainty, training quality, and accessibility. To further understand the impacts of the pandemic on the development of para-sport, researchers must learn from the lived experiences of para-sport participants. This poster aims to examine the lived experiences of parasport participants and the implications on parasport development during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Quotes from para-sport participants were collected from online forums on the study (Project Echo) website and through live, virtual discussions facilitated by Project Echo researchers. 6 themes were found from the data set. This poster explores the 5 subthemes identified under the COVID-19 theme: (1) Safety; (2) Accessibility; (3) Participation in Physical Activity; (4) Future of Events; and (5) Mental Health. In conclusion, the pandemic has magnified existing inequities in para-sport. Policy-makers and sport facilitators should utilize the pandemic as an opportunity to address and solve existing issues faced by para-sport participants by including participants in decision-making processes.