Understanding the Role of Coaches in the Career Development of Paralympic Youth Athletes

The junior-to-senior transition sport is a critical phase for athletes, where coaches play a major role (Allan et al., 2020; Drew et al., 2019). However, for Paralympic youth athletes, this phase is particularly underexplored (Dehghansai et al., 2017; Townsend et al., 2022). Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital, and social fields, Cushion and Kitchen (2011) emphasize how coaching practices are embedded in sociocultural contexts and shaped by power relations. Therefore, using Bourdieu's framework, this study examines how coaches perceive and influence youth Para-athletes' career development. Specifically, it investigates the forms of cultural, social, and symbolic capital that coaches bring into the Paralympic field and how these resources interact with the sociocultural and organizational structures shaping the junior-to-senior transition.
Using a qualitative design, semi-structured interviews with ten coaches of German youth elite Para-athletes are conducted. Interviews are being held between November 2024 and March 2025. Data will be thematically analysed using MAXQDA. Preliminary findings reveal that coaches' acquired capital, e.g. through Olympic sport, shape their expectations and practices in Paralympic sport. These expectations can create tensions as coaches encounter systemic barriers within the Paralympic field. Furthermore, coaches adopt performance-driven ideologies that impose high-performance frameworks onto disability,
often reflecting ableist assumptions about disability (Townsend & Cushion, 2022). This study will contribute to a better understanding of the role of Paralympic coaches in the career development of young Para-athletes. The findings have implications for coach education, policy, and strategies to support youth Para-athletes during important career transitions.