Capable and Disabled: Disability Inclusion in Professional Sports

By Xander Evans

Professional sports showcases the best of the best when it comes to a particular game. From the wildly popular sports like basketball, football, soccer, and baseball to the more niche sports like teqball or bowling, the dedicated players need to be at the top of their physical and mental ability. These sports capture the hearts and passions of millions across the country, and this can leave the disabled seemingly out of luck. How can someone in a wheelchair play basketball like LeBron, or someone with cerebral palsy play baseball like Shohei Ohtani? As people with disabilities continue to demand representation and consideration for their lived experience, sports leagues have been created that cater to people with disabilities along with efforts to include those with disabilities into larger sports events so that everyone can engage with the games they love at a higher level.  People with disabilities found ways to play the games and compete in the sports they loved on higher stages, whether that be in their own separate league or ways to work with their disabilities.

Disability in sports has a long history, with each seemingly minor event having a deep and rich history of its own. The early instances of disability sports were the formation of the World Games for the Deaf in 1924 (now known as the Deaflympics, which is held every two years alternating between winter and summer) and the British Society of One-Armed Golfers in 1932[1]. These were steps that included people with disabilities in sport, but were also very specific.  Disability sport became more general through the accidental innovation of neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttman. A Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who had settled in Britain, Guttman was placed in charge of the Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1944, tasked with helping paraplegic war veterans recover. While he was a brilliant neuroscientist, his longest lasting contribution was making sports a mandatory exercise in treatment[2]. Seeing the success of this treatment, Guttman organized the first Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralyzed the same day the 1948 Olympics began, which led to the popularity of sports in rehabilitation and greater popularity of “wheelchair sports.”  Over the next 30 years, the Stoke Mandeville Games would expand the number of sports played, the kinds of disabilities that would be allowed to join, and eventually become the Paralympic Games[1].

Sports for those with learning disabilities have their own history, and much like Guttman included sports in his institution for treatment, sports for those with learning disabilities also have origins in treatment. In the late 1800s, Britain had found sports to be critical in promoting a healthy society and in instilling positive values within people. Since mental disability was considered a moral failing in the 1800s, sport became a critical part of treatment. Unlike Guttman’s seemingly rapid success with wheelchair sports, sport for the “feeble minded” was not taken entirely seriously, treated as a public spectacle. Yet, public interest in watching the disabled play sports provided a firm countermeasure to the eugenicist voices calling for the “feeble minded” to be thrown into asylums[3]. The first majorly successful sports clubs for those with learning disabilities, the Cardiff Chameleons, began in Britain in 1959 and was founded by Joyce Robinson. While membership was slow to grow, by 1963 she had obtained 30 members and had organized a club gala to showcase the mentally handicapped children she had helped teach to swim by tapping into their unique lines of communication.  This group was the first to sign up for the Special Olympics[4]. The Special Olympics were born around the same time as the Cardiff Chameleons, as the organizers of a daycamp for people with intellectual disabilities found evidence of those with mental handicaps to be just as capable as neurotypicals, with this movement coming to fruition with the first official Special Olympic games in 1968[5]. Both the Cardiff Chameleons and the creation of the Special Olympics

With separate leagues for physical disability being created to allow more people to enjoy professional sport, what is the status of those with neurodivergence? As it would turn out, many who have a mental “disability” like autism or ADHD can leverage these traits to gain advantages for athletes at the top of their game.  Michael Phelps, famous for winning 28 Olympic medals in swimming, 23 of them gold, found his ADHD to be an advantage as a dedicated swimmer.  Diagnosed as a young boy, Phelps found himself struggling in school and found a strong advocate in his mother.  When Phelps discovered his passion for swimming, his mother used it to structure his life and help him remain composed[6].  Simone Biles also found success with her ADHD, as her coach sought to use Biles’ traits to her advantage rather than as an obstacle.  Biles learned to channel her hyperfocus tendency to keep calm in massive events. Her restlessness, a trait often made into an ADHD stereotype, gave her the energy required to push through long and grueling practices.  Her creativity in creating two gymnastics moves named after her can also be attributed to her ADHD[7].  While some disabilities designate certain athletes into their own separate leagues, some neurodivergent traits help people excel on the “normal” competitive stage.

People who are paralyzed from the waist down will likely never be able to dunk on LeBron James, nor could someone fairly race against Usain Bolt if they were an amputee. People with different bodies are going to be capable of different things, and those with disabilities will not have the same abilities as others. Just because someone is disabled doesn’t mean someone is incapable, nor does it mean they do not have the right to push themselves in advanced sport. Whether it be through innovative training techniques or a separate league that allows those with disabilities, no human should find themselves restricted from competing in the games they love.

Sources:

[1] DePauw, Karen P. “History of Disability Sport.” Disability Sport, Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 2005, pp. 37–59. 

[2] Hicks, Cherrill. “Paralympics Founder Sir Ludwig Guttmann’s Legacy Celebrated in BBC Drama.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 3 Aug. 2012, www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9450182/Paralympics-founder-Sir-Ludwig-Guttmanns-legacy-celebrated-in-BBC-drama.html. 

[3] Weir, Tom, Learning Disability and Sport: A History, March 202, De Montfort University

[4] “Hugofox Home.” Cardiff Chameleons, Cardiff, www.hugofox.com/community/cardiff-chameleons-14907/history/. Accessed 3 Apr. 2025. 

[5] Legg, David, et al. "Historical overview of the Paralympics, Special Olympics, and Deaflympics." Palaestra, vol. 20, no. 1, winter 2004, pp. 30+. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A114366604/HRCA?u=sant99200&sid=googleScholar&xid=b23dd5e7. Accessed 6 Apr. 2025. 

[6] Dutton, Judy. “How Swimming Saved Michael Phelps: An ADHD Story.” ADDitude, ADDitude, 31 July 2024, www.additudemag.com/michael-phelps-adhd-advice-from-the-olympians-mom/?srsltid=AfmBOopu_kSZqHW1ImZjcpcd1VD3m6ywTSLTFF0_udPJfaiuiAnF29iR. 

[7] “How Simone Biles Turned ADHD into Her Superpower.” LDRFA, 6 Aug. 2024, www.ldrfa.org/simone-biles-turned-adhd-into-her-superpower/.