The social legacy potential of the Paralympic Games: a rapid review of the evidence

A rapid review evaluated the documented impacts of hosting the Paralympic Games on grassroots sport participation and social inclusion outcomes for people with disabilities in host cities or regions since 2000. Our final sample consisted of 24 sources. Data suggests the Paralympics can increase awareness of the provision and need for sport participation but has minimal concrete impacts on sustained regular sport participation. Policy effectiveness is constrained by wider structural, social, and systemic barriers to sport participation. Leveraging can produce some sport participation benefits. For social inclusion outcomes, the data is more positive. There appears to be improvements made to the availability of accessible infrastructure in some host cities because of hosting the Paralympics, though areas of development remain here. Some evidence exists for a link between hosting the Paralympics and disability-focused policy and legislation. Attitudes of and towards disability may be improved among non-disabled people and young people with disabilities because of the Paralympics. The longevity and impact of attitudinal change on the lived experience of people with disabilities is unclear. Future research should incorporate longitudinal studies to understand any documented impacts over time. We call for more co-production in Paralympic legacy research to understand the lived experiences of people with disabilities due to hosting the Paralympics. Overall, we conclude hosting the Paralympics is not an effective macro policy for increasing sustained regular sport participation but can support progress in social inclusion outcomes for some people with disabilities.