"our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds": Experiences of athletes with disabilities

Abstract

People with disabilities are a social group highly exposed to risks of poverty and social exclusion. The present study aims to identify the opportunities for social and spatial mobility of the disabled people through professional sport. The study is based on eight biographical interviews with professional athletes with serious health issues. The article describes how the career of the disabled athletes started, what they were driven by, whose support they relied on, what they have achieved in sport so far, what difficulties they were facing, as well as how different types of capital and spatial mobility of the athletes were changing over time throughout their careers. Results suggest that high performance sport has contributed to athletes' professional realization, helped them to improve financial situation, to expand the network, to develop vital life skills and attitudes, i.e. it enabled the disabled athletes to accumulate economic, social and cultural capital. Besides that, sport has become a stimulus and a way to increase athlete spatial mobility which has had a positive impact on athletes' opportunities for social participation. Sport-induced qualitative changes in the athlete's life helped the athletes to improve their social status and facilitated upward social mobility.