Home Advantage in Para-Sport

Abstract

This chapter will discuss the current knowledge and awareness of how the phenomena of Home Advantage (HA) impacts Para sport performers. The word "Para" is a prefix from the Greek meaning of "alongside". More recently, "Para" has been used interchangeably with "disability", extending beyond sports solely associated with the Paralympic Games. For the purposes of this chapter, "Para" will be used to define all sports that are competed by individuals who are unable to participate in able-bodied sports due to an impairment. The first part of this chapter will explore the current research that has focused on HA in Para-sports through the means of counting medals and the need for more specialised knowledge and expertise presented. After that, Carron et al.'s (2005) revised HA conceptual framework is drawn on, acknowledging the challenges surrounding player classification in team sport, to critically examine the phenomenon within blind football and wheelchair basketball. The current understanding of HA in Para-sportElsewhere in this book the phenomenon of HA in able-bodied sports has been examined and builds on the generally well-established body of academic literature. In contrast, HA in Para-sport has received limited attention to date. Wilson and Ramchandani (2017b, 2017a) examined whether HA existed in both the Summer Paralympic Games and Winter Paralympic Games . Through analysing each nation's average home performance when hosting a Games with its own average away performance, a measure of HA in the term of a market share could be calculated. During the Summer Paralympics, only para-athletics, para-table tennis and wheelchair fencing returned statistically significant HA differences. Whilst during the Winter Paralympics, only para-alpine skiing and para-cross-country skiing reported a significant HA effect (Wilson & Ramchandani, 2017b). The remaining Summer and Winter Paralympics sports provided weak or inconclusive evidence of a HA effect. It is important to note that these associations between HA and performance extend to returning any coloured medal. For example, in the para-alpine skiing category, Canada achieved a total of five medals (one Gold, two Silver and two Bronze) at the 2006 Winter Paralympic Games held in Italy. When hosting the 2010 Winter Paralympic Games, they won a total of 13 medals (six Gold, four Silver and three Bronze), whereas, at the following 2014 Winter Paralympics in Russia, Canada won a total of eight medals (two Gold, one Silver and five Bronze). Whilst this demonstrates an insight into the number of medals collected immediately pre-, during and post-hosting a major competition, Ramchandani's (2017b, 2017a) work collectively analysed data from 11 competitions spanning five decades and therefore does not necessarily indicate the phenomena but a measure of a nation's ability to continuously achieve medal success in particular sports. Furthermore, Pettigrew and Reiche (2016) argue if a small HA does exist for hosting, host nations enter a greater number of events and it is largely d...