Science at UM [S04-ep01]: Optimizing Paralympic Performance

[Podcast] - Published on September 19, 2024 in Science and Society

"Science Returns" is back for a new season at UM with Yann Beldame and Rémi Richard, sociologists at the Health, Education, and Disability Research Lab (Santesih). They discuss performance and training environments for para-athletes. In the second half of the program, Lorenzo Stievano gives us a tour of the battery testing room at theICGM. A program co-produced with Divergence FM and broadcast every Wednesday at 6 p.m. on 93.9.

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75 is the number of medals—including 19 gold—won by the 230 French para-athletes at the Paralympic Games, which concluded on September 8. Eighth place is where we finished in the overall standings. This marks a return to the top 10 that France hadn’t achieved since the Sydney Games in 2000.^14th place in Tokyo in 2020,^12th in Rio in 2016, and^16th in London in 2012. A far cry, then, from our record set 40 years ago: a fourth-place finish in Barcelona in 1992, with 36 gold medals out of a total of 106.

Can this resurgence in popularity be explained by anything other than the enthusiasm of the French public, which has indeed been there to support them? Beyond issues of visibility, what factors contribute to improved performance among para-athletes? How can athletic training and the environment surrounding that training improve these performances? What actionable strategies can be proposed to stakeholders in the Paralympic world—whether the athletes themselves, their families, or their support staff?

These are some of the questions addressed in a report titled Paraperf: “Optimizing Paralympic Performance: From Identification to Medal Winning.” The report was produced as part of a call for proposals launched in preparation for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. It is the result of a collaboration between numerous partners, including two sports federations—the French Handisport Federation and the French Shooting Federation—and more than 13 research units, among them the Montpellier-based Santesih laboratory, which focuses on health, education, and disability.

Sociologists Yann Beldame and Rémi Richard contributed to the preparation of this report, specifically to the section titled “The Social Production of Paralympic Performance: Availability, Expertise, Social Interaction, and Competition.”