The social worlds of special Olympics athletes

Abstract

Introduction/Conceptualization: Despite their right to meaningful leisure, disabled people continue to face challenges and exclusion. They have been overlooked by leisure and event studies researchers in the past, but there is now an emerging body of work investigating their experiences. Music events (Dinis et al., 2020; Alvarado, 2022), rural events (Sage & Flores, 2019), arts events (Walters, 2023) and sporting events (dos Santos Neto et al., 2019; McGillivray et al., 2019) have all featured. However, it is predominantly the voices of people with physical disabilities who have been heard in these studies: the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities have largely been neglected. For people who engage in serious leisure activities such as sports (and associated events), the gains include a sense of achievement, an increase in self-esteem, stress reduction, skill acquisition, and an enhanced level of self-confidence. They also deepen their social relationships, form friendships, expand their social networks and have an enhanced social life. In addition, serious leisure participants are engaged in a ‘social world’ that has its own actors, organisations and practices (Unruh, 1979). To date, social world theory has not been applied within the context of intellectually disabled people’s leisure experiences. Approach/Description: This UK-based project addresses these gaps in our understanding, adopting social world theory as the lens through which to investigate the importance of sport as serious leisure for intellectually disabled people. Specifically, it seeks to answer the research question, “How does participation in the social world of Special Olympics contribute to quality of life for athletes with intellectual disabilities and their wider networks?” Data will be collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with athletes, their family members, support people and coaches. Considerations/Conclusions: At the time of abstract submission, data collection and analysis are yet to be completed, meaning that it is not possible to provide an description of the research findings here.