Ableism in sport is alive and well, according to Brock expert

According to Jennifer Mooradian (MA ’22), the disconnect between the Special Olympics and the Paralympic and Olympic Games speaks volumes. It is a “prime example that ableism is still very present in sport,” says the Brock University Applied Health Sciences PhD candidate.

Although the International Olympic Committee recognizes all three organizations, the Special Olympics World Games are not held in the same year nor at the same place as the Olympics and Paralympics. While the Paralympics are now underway in Paris, on the heels of the Olympics, the most recent Special Olympics Summer Games took place last year in Berlin, Germany.

Mooradian, whose research explores self-representation in Special Olympics athletes, says although great progress has been made to “legitimize” the Paralympics and its elite international athletes with physical disabilities, the intellectually and cognitively disabled people involved with the Special Olympics continue to be “taken less seriously.”

She says there is an unfortunate hierarchy of sport: able-bodied athletes are at the top, followed by athletes with physical disabilities, then those with intellectual and cognitive disabilities.

“The more closely a disabled individual can approximate to so-called ‘normal,’ the more legitimate they’re seen to be,” says Mooradian.

Many people associate the Special Olympics with its longtime focus on inclusiveness. While this treats sport as the human fundamental right it is — by including everyone no matter their ability — it also inadvertently defines sport as either competitive at an elite, high-performing level or as recreational or participatory, she says. 

“People think the Special Olympics isn’t real sport because it’s inclusive, but why can’t all sport be inclusive?” she says. “We could offer sport on a spectrum where people can engage how they want with who they want.”

While Mooradian acknowledges a fully inclusive Olympic Games may not happen in her lifetime, she thinks it is reasonable to align the timing of the Special Olympic World Games with the Paralympics.

“The Special Olympics aren’t on anyone’s radar because it sits way over there in another space,” she says. “Why do we assume these athletes don’t have the desire or ability to compete? An athlete’s desire to compete is not lessened because of their intellectual and cognitive disability,” she says. 

“Does it look a bit different? Yes. Are their times slower? For sure, but they can still compete. It is our ableist views about sport, not their disability, that is preventing them from competing.”