ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the role of swimming on Paralympic athletes' perceptions of self and identity development. METHOD: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was taken. During semi-structured interviews, five Paralympic swimmers (aged 20-24 years) were asked questions about their swimming career, perceptions of self, integration, and impairment. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. RESULTS: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis yielded three superordinate themes: (a) "One of the crowd"; none of the participants viewed themselves as disabled, nor as supercrips; these perceptions stemmed from family-, school-, and swimming-related experiences, (b) "Becoming me"; participation in swimming facilitated self- and social-acceptance, and identity development, and c) "A badge of honor"; swimming presented opportunity to present and reinforce a positive identity. CONCLUSIONS: Swimming experiences enabled the participants to enhance personal and social identities, integrate through pro-social mechanisms, and to develop a career path following retirement from competition. Implications for rehabilitation Offering equal sporting opportunities for people with/without physical disability can help facilitate social integration and act as a buffer against stigmatization. Our research suggests that participation in sport had afforded the participants a heightened sense of self-concept, independence, ability and corresponding pride. When working with individuals with physical disabilities, rehabilitation professionals could utilize sport as a means of increasing an individual's feelings of independence, confidence and normalization. As such, part of rehabilitation should be to ensure opportunities for sport participation for people with physical disability are available for people of all ages.
