Women para-athletes as space invaders: the affective forces shaping mixed-gender para-sport experiences

The Paralympic Games is the highest-level event that includes mixed-gender team contact sports. Yet, there is little research that has examined the experiences of women para-athletes to identify what contributes to a safe and inclusive sport environment and how inequity negatively impacts their capacity in elite mixed-gender sport. Drawing on interviews with women para-athletes, this article explores how material, discursive and affective forces shape para-sport experiences in mixed-gender spaces. It complicates claims that mixed-gender sports enable equality by highlighting how multiple forces shape women para-athletes positioning as space invaders, subordinated to the men, in ways that limit their embodied capacity, place them in unwelcome environments, and jeopardize their safety.