The Paralympics and Veterans with Disabilities in the US

Abstract

A precursor to the Paralympics was the Stoke Mandeville Games, and it is well known that one of its major objectives was to provide treatment to military personnel and to support their reintegration into civilian society. While the Paralympics subsequently developed as an elite sports competition, in recent years there has been an increase in the number of disabled war veterans taking part. As a form of rehabilitation for military personnel, the Paralympics can be seen as having come full circle. This is particularly noticeable in the case of the US: at the 2018 Paralympics in Pyeongchang, veterans made up 24.3% of the entire US team.

Behind that development is the increase in the number of disabled veterans resulting from the various wars against terror that America has fought since the 9/11 attacks in 2001. This increase has resulted in an expanding medical and welfare bill that puts pressure on US government finances, and delays in diagnosis and treatment in veterans hospitals have emerged as a major social and political problem. Veterans in the US number more than 20 million, constituting a major political force that can even affect the outcome of presidential elections, and how veterans are treated has become an election issue in recent years.

One of the various policies that the U.S. goverment agencies such as U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have adopted to deal with this increase in disabled veterans has been to encourage individuals to take part in adaptive sports. Since the mid 2000s there has been an expansion in programs specifically designed for military individuals, undertaken in close cooperation with the US Olympic Committee. In particular with the passing of the Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act of 2008, various programs were launched to provide grant to organizations that run adaptive sports programs for disabled veterans and to pay monthly training allowance to disabled veterans with Paralympics-level competition skills.

What effects will these sorts of proactive government policies have on the Paralympics and adaptive sports in the future? First, we can argue that they will contribute to the growth and development of the Paralympics and adaptive sports as a whole. The US Olympic Committee and other sports organizations will be strengthened on the financial front, the increasing number of disabled veterans taking up adaptive sports will result in more athletes being developed, and there will be more public interest. Second, because there is significantly more support given to disabled veterans engaged in sports in comparison to disabled civilians, there is a possibility that military personnel will have an unfair advantage in opportunities to participate in the Paralympics. Third, if disabled veterans receive preferential treatment and their proportion among Paralympics participants increases, defining the value of disabled sports may be focused on its sports element and increasing competitive skill, rather than welfare-related aspects such as the rehabilitation of disabled people, their psychological stability, the recovery of their self-confidence and dignity, and supporting their reintegration into communities. Lastly, because participation in sports by a nation’s veterans often includes patriotic elements such as the prominent use of the national flag, the Paralympics Games may also become an event with a stronger appeal to nationalism.