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Disability and the Dedicated Wheelchair Athlete

The “supercrip” athlete is often derided as a figure that is antithetical to the interests of people with disabilities. But few researchers have questioned the assumptions of this complaint or examined it empirically. In this article I problematize the supercrip critique and argue for a more nuanced view of dedicated disabled athletes as offering both a disempowering and an empowering experience for people with disabilities. I report on the results of in-depth interviews of ballplayers and other personnel associated with a premier collegiate wheelchair basketball program, documenting the unintended social fissures that developed between elite athletes and nonathletes within this disability community, and revealing tensions between exclusionary and inclusionary aspects of the sport and between separatist and integrationist strategies of using sport for progressive social change and personal empowerment. I conclude by considering the broader implications of the study for the role of sport in the disability rights movement.