Abstract ♦ The article is devoted to the issue of promoting physical culture and sports among people with disabilities. Enhancing social and health services alone does not suffice to improve the quality of their lives. Today, we should set up the conditions for their social adaptation and integration into public and professional life — among other things, by means of sports and tourism.
Active tourism helps professional rehabilitation and the rebuilding of psychophysical resources. Sport tourism as a type of active tourism can itself be subdivided into active (doing sports) and passive (travelling to attend a sporting event as a fan).
Sport tourism for people with disabilities is now receiving increased attention from the state. In particular, their needs were addressed in a Federal task program adopted in 2006. Titled “The Development of Physical Culture and Sports in the Russian Federation, 2006–2015”, the program stipulates the construction of sports facilities (stadiums, swimming pools, skating rinks, etc.) which would be accessible for various population groups.
Retrospective analysis shows that the first sports clubs for people with visual impairments appeared in Berlin in 1888. After World War II, sporting events for war veterans with disabilities became part of the rehabilitation program. The first competition for the wheelchair-bound, known as the Stoke-Mandeville Games, was held in London in 1948 on the opening day of the Olympics. Later they developed into the Paralympic Games.
The sports movement for the disabled in Russia was formalized by the creation of the Paralympic Committee in 1966. In many ways thanks to the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi, a lot has been done so far, but much more remains to be done. The current challenge is the issue of domestic production of special equipment for physical training and sports for people with disabilities.
We can thus conclude that the Paralympic Games promote the development of sport tourism among people with disabilities, helping them rehabilitate and adapt to society, and eventually to return to active life.
Keywords: Paralympic Games, rehabilitation tourism, physical culture and sport, people with disabilities, the disabled, active tourism.
Tatarinova Ksenia Viktorovna, Postgraduate, Department of Management, Moscow University for the Humanities. Postal address: 5 Yunosti St., Moscow, Russian Federation, 111395. Tel.: +7 (499) 374-58-00. E-mail: . Research advisor: Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor, O. V. Ostroumov.
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