Women with Disabilities Who Play Sitting Volleyball: Embodiment, Painful Experiences and the Impact of Parasports on Their Mental Health and Well-Being

The study sought to understand the embodiment of nine women with disabilities (acquired or innate) who play sitting volleyball and how this paralympic sport contributed to their empowerment, redefinition of their lives and social inclusion. These women went through painful experiences, both physical, resulting from amputations, surgeries, insertion and removal of endoprostheses, phantom pain, phantom limb, etc., in various circumstances and experiences, as well as psychological pain, resulting from the traumas experienced and subsequent relationships with family, work and society in general, especially the impact caused by unexpected dependence on other people and rejections (relationships breakups, for example). The study found the importance of these women's inclusion in the parasports world and how their embodiment is marked by multidimensional aspects and was (re)defined through everyday experiences in this corporal practice and its surroundings, with pain and with other people, altering the senses and meanings attributed to their embodiment. The research procedures, carried out using a qualitative approach, included: participant observation; experience reports; life stories; socioeconomic questionnaires; and flexible interviews. The research was conducted between January 2020 and October 2021 and, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was conducted in a hybrid format, with part of the information being obtained in person and part being collected virtually, through video conferences, email messages, and the use of communication applications. The limitations generated by this period in the training routine of these para-athletes were also recorded, impacting their bodies with disabilities and mental health. Although physical activity has been found to have positive impacts on the physical and mental health and well-being of these women with disabilities, further studies are needed to understand the relevance of other multidimensional factors that affect this portion of population.