Eric de Léséleuc

From Sydney to Beijing: the evolution of the photographic coverage of Paralympic Games in five European countries

The growth of the Paralympic Movement during the last few decades has been reinforced significantly by the Olympic reform process, particularly as the efforts of the IOC 2000 Commission fortified the relationship between Olympic and Paralympic Committees. However, this development is scarcely illustrated in the world media arena; several scholars draw attention to the dearth of coverage of elite athletes with disabilities in popular media. This article examines preliminary data regarding the evolution of the photographic coverage of five European countries over an eight-year period, from Sydney (2000) to Beijing (2008). The journalistic attention, as highlighted by the number of published images, has been raised during this period, and the coverage of female and male athletes matched the demographics of these five European countries. However, the data also reveals that the competitiveness and the abilities of Paralympic athletes are not highlighted, the majority of the images did not depict the athletes in action, but rather as motionless.

Contested issues in research on the media coverage of female Paralympic athletes

The Paralympic Games are considered to be the second biggest sporting event in the world, after the Summer Olympic Games, however, research on the media coverage of athletes with disabilities is in its infancy. More specifically, there is a lack of studies focusing on whether quantitative and qualitative differences exist in the manner in which the female and male Paralympic athletes are represented in the print media. In contrast, there is an extensive body of scholarly research on the differential media treatment of female and male Olympic athletes. This article includes three aspects: (1) a brief summary of the media coverage of non-disabled female athletes, with the aim of providing some research indicators that could be used in analogous studies of Paralympic sport; (2) the examination of the limited media literature on the portrayals of female and male Paralympic athletes; and (3) a discussion of possible future research in this relatively unexplored, area of media, gender and Paralympic sport.

The media coverage of female athletes with disability. Analysis of the daily press of four European countries during the 2000 Sidney Paralympic Games

Abstract Data concerning mediatization of the female athletes are showing that on the one hand, women are less represented than men and, on the other hand, their image is frequently sexualized. In addition, contrary to men, media often focuses on their social roles as mother, wife, etc, i.e. female athletes are frequently portrayed in scenes non related with the sports dimensions. It is also known that media treatment of disabled athletes is quite different from those of others athletes. But, which are the peculiarities concerning media treatment of female athletes with disabilities? In the present study a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Paralympic Games in Sydney 2000 has taken place, including 108 articles from German, English, Spanish, and French newspapers. Our data shows that, contrary to what was expected, women with disabilities are not specially underrepresented compared to men; quantitatively there is no presence of a specific stigmatization. But a qualitative analysis of texts and photos shows that a stigmatization process is taking place through a more insidious form: the female Paralympic athletes are largely “infantilized” and “trivialized” (Jones et al., 1999) in the newspapers which cover the Paralympic Games.

Sport and disability: Pistorius does not fit with the categories

ABSTRACT Oscar Pistorius presents a major issue to sports organisations, as exposed in the media. First and foremost, media wrongly perceive him as the first disabled athlete to participate in the Olympic Games. Second, they openly question the legitimacy of his participation mainly based on the inequity introduced by his prosthetic legs. Content analysis, in English and French, of written press, International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) texts, from 2004 to 2012, confirms that Pistorius presents a new puzzle to sports organizations. This is partly because they are not able to determine whether his performances are a result of his body strength or if they are biased by his artificial limbs. Furthermore, when he is competing against able-bodied athletes, sports organizsations put him in a ‘monstrous’ position. Similarly, while categorising him as an ‘athlete’ they do not grant him the characteristic feature of this category: certified comparability of performances to ultimately establish ranks.

Technology at the service of natural performance: cross analysis of the Oscar Pistorius and Caster Semenya cases

Abstract Drawing from the pragmatic sociology initiated by Boltanski and Thévenot, this study bears on the moments of tension between nature’s dispositions and technology’s possibilities in sporting events. It is based on the premise that the deep meaning of sport competitions and their staging are best perceived when strange or foreign forces (an overly ‘bouncing’ prosthesis, an overly masculine body) comes and undermines the reality tests which constitute the events. Through a cross-analysis [in the sense lent to this term by Passeron and Revel], of two athletes whose sporting achievements generated debates – Oscar Pistorius and Caster Semenya – we will underline the fundamental role of technology, which consists in instituting, in secret, reality that is always more significant from a sporting standpoint.

From Repair to Enhancement: The Use of Technical Aids in the Field of Disability

There is nothing new in the use of technology to repair and compensate for human disabilities. Throughout the centuries we find examples of prostheses and artificial limbs being used to replace lost limbs (Avan et al., 1988). Various technical aids were also used to compensate for the body’s failings or to facilitate treatment — wheeled vehicles were used to carry invalids, for example. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the first wheelchairs that could be propelled by the users themselves appeared. But the majority of these vehicles were made of wood; they were heavy, cumbersome and difficult to manoeuvre. During the 19th century, medical progress (the discovery of anaesthesia, asepsis, antibiotics, radiology, and so on) made it possible to develop new techniques to repair and compensate for deficiencies. Furthermore, the end of the 19th century saw the beginning of a change in the social treatment of disabled persons, leading to the emergence of the notion of ‘handicap’ as a replacement for the notions of infirmity, invalidity, idiocy, and so on. In other words, developments in the modes of repairing deficiencies and of compensating for disabilities correlate with changes in the definition of ‘disability’ (as ‘handicap’) and in the way persons with disabilities are integrated into society.