Ethics and Paralympic Sports: a study with high-performance Portuguese athletes

Abstract

In recent times, the Paralympic Games have been demonstrating that society values adapted sports. However, there has been a growing number of scandals, corruption, and illicit means to achieve success, which shows that this context is not immune to violations of sports ethics. Thus, this study aimed to identify the representations that Portuguese athletes have regarding ethics in Paralympic sports, to identify the values they uphold, and to understand the challenges posed to the safeguarding of ethics in this context. The study involved 7 Portuguese Paralympic athletes, all of whom had participated at least once in one of the editions of the Paralympic Games. The instrument used was a semi-structured interview, and the data obtained were analysed using the content analysis technique. The results allow us to determine two major dimensions of analysis. The first pertains to the concept of ethics in Paralympic sports, which materialises in a set of essential ethical values, such as respect and integrity. The second dimension refers to a set of representations that seek to embody the ethical challenges faced by Paralympic sports. Among them, notable issues include sports classification and unethical behaviours, particularly doping.