Sports 2013, 1, 13-36; doi:10.3390/sports1010013 OPEN ACCESS sports ISSN 2075-4663 www.mdpi.com/journal/sports Article Paralympics and Its Athletes Through the Lens of the New York Times Jeremy Tynedal 1 and Gregor Wolbring 2,* 1 Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1, Canada 2 Faculty of Medicine, Dept. Community Health Sciences, stream of Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1, Canada; E-Mail:
[email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed;
[email protected]; Tel.:+1-403-210-7083. Received: 11 December 2012; in revised form: 22 December 2012 / Accepted: 8 January 2013 / Published: 24 January 2013 Abstract: The purpose of this article is to analyze the coverage of the Paralympics in the New York Times (NYT) from the first appearance of the term Paralympics in 1955 up to 2012. We analyzed a) the textual imagery (not imagery intrinsic to pictures) of the Paralympics and its athletes, b) the representation of views and hopes of Paralympians and c) the visibility of the Paralympics and Paralympians within the NYT. We found that NYT coverage of the Paralympics and Paralympians is minimal and often portrays Paralympic athletes in stereotypical ways, such as being supercrips or suffering entities. In regards to the portrayal of therapeutic assistive devices of Paralympic athletes in the NYT, four themes are evident: a) the advancement of technology, b) the hierarchy between different therapeutic assistive devices, c) the relationship between the device and the athlete and d) the affordability of the device.