Paralympic Sport Participation Legacies: a critical review

Paralympic Games sport participation legacies refer to long-term changes in grassroots sport participation, participation pathways, and disability sport systems associated with hosting the Paralympic Games. Sport participation legacy is frequently used by governments to articulate the social value of hosting the Paralympic Games. Sport participation is not the only social outcome linked to Paralympic legacy, which can also include areas such as accessibility and inclusion, policy change, attitudes towards disabled people, infrastructure improvements, and media coverage.
The Paralympic Games are the second-largest multi-sport event in the world and provide the largest global platform for disability sport. The Games have grown significantly since their origins at Stoke Mandeville in 1948, when competition was limited to archery for a small number of servicemen and women with spinal cord injuries. By 2026, the Summer Paralympics featured over 160 nations and more than 4,000 athletes, while the Winter Paralympics featured over 50 nations and more than 600 athletes.
Scholarship on Olympic Games sport participation legacies is more extensive than scholarship on the Paralympics, with Paralympic sport participation legacies receiving limited scholarly attention before the Sydney 2000 Games. The available evidence presents a mixed picture. There is evidence to suggest the Paralympic Games can inspire some people to become more active in sport and support improvements in disability sport systems and provision. Regular sport participation may increase in the short term, but evidence for long-term change is less clear. Limited long-term development has been linked to the importance of wider sporting systems rather than reliance on a single sporting event such as the Paralympics to support sustained sport participation. Economic conditions, transport, accessibility, policy support, and the quality of clubs and coaching can all amplify or constrain any potential sport participation legacy resulting from the Paralympic Games.
The London 2012 Paralympic Games provide an illustrative case because of the prominence given to sport participation legacy as part of the event’s organisation and delivery. Evidence from London and other host contexts suggests Paralympic sport participation legacies are mediated by the wider sporting and social environment in which they occur. Paralympic sport participation legacies are therefore uneven and conditional rather than automatic outcomes of hosting, depending on the wider social and sporting structures in which they are embedded.