RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The purpose of this study was to identify perceived needs for parasport development in Lao PDR by exploring the experiences and opinions of parasport stakeholders – athletes, coaches, and administrators. We generated three interrelated themes from thematic analysis: (a) the need for parasport equipment and infrastructure: the consequence of resource poverty, (b) the need for coaching knowledge: the lack of sport-specific parasport coach training, and (c) the need for income: labor equity for sustainable parasport development. These themes uncovered key issues in parasport development in the Global South, which responds to the call for such investigation by Swartz (2022). We will now discuss each theme in turn.

The Need for Parasport Equipment and Infrastructure: The Consequence of Resource Poverty

Lao parasport stakeholders consider the lack of parasport equipment, such as sport prosthetics and wheelchairs, and parasport facilities to be major constraints for parasport development in Lao PDR. A blind football athlete (A6) said that “we do not have a proper pitch … and also the equipment, like the blindfolds, the balls, the knee protectors, and other protectors that will be needed, but the most important one will be the border, the wall.” Participant C5, who was a blind football coach, explained that a proper parasport facility set-up is lacking, and it causes risks for injuries when athletes practice blind football:

I need support to build a rebound panel [a board that runs around the pitch to help provide a reference point for the athletes], because we need to ensure safety to prevent any injuries. We also need support in terms of the balls themselves, the protective gears, the blindfolds… My concern is that elite athletes are facing risks while playing blind football, because I know that there are some athletes with disabilities who are afraid of getting injured when they play in the game.

Another participant (C2), who was a goalball coach, similarly said that they “don’t have standard court for goalball in Lao PDR… The surface is not designed for goalball.” Even worse, because they had no way but to use a public sport facility for goalball practice, they need to share the gym with able-bodied local citizens, which is not desirable:

When our team practices, we have to share the court and practice together with other people without disabilities. One challenge is that the surface and structure of the court is not designed to play goalball. … When people without disabilities and para-athletes share the same court, our players are visually impaired, but people without disabilities are not quiet and silent, they talk and speak, so para-athletes were distracted to focus and lost concentration during the practice. Regarding rules of goalball, all players must be silent and quiet, so that para-athletes can focus on sounds from ball. (C2)

Clearly, the facility set-up was a significant constraint that undermined the quality of goalball practice. Similar claims were made by a parasport swimming coach (C3): “I want to share is that we are searching for more equipment, facilities, and support, even swimming pool, that is up to a standard.” In addition to equipment and facilities, human resources can be a major constraint. Participant A4, who was a sprinter with a visual impairment explained:

I do not have any companions for para-athletes with visual impairment. Therefore, there are unexpected incidents happening. For example, some people walked casually and blocked me during practice. When I increase my speed when I run, sometimes I have an accident and injuries. In the past, I mentioned that I had a Japanese volunteer who supported me or assisted me during practices. In Laos, when we have no competition, we do not have any coaches or support team at all… Regular days, I needed to practice by myself.

Participants reported that they could not practice appropriately due to the inadequate physical environment, and the problem of shared use of the facilities that were available.

To develop parasport, sport equipment and facilities specific to parasport are required (Patatas et al., 2020), which comes at a significant cost. As Lao PDR is categorized as one of the most economically disadvantaged countries (the United Nations, 2024), our findings of the parasport equipment and facilities needs are rather obvious. In fact, the need for equipment and facilities has been a consistent problem for parasport development in ASEAN countries (Wilson & Khoo, 2013) and other Global South nations (e.g., Novak, 2017). The poor success of resource-poor countries at the Paralympics compared to resource-rich countries is well known (e.g., Brittain, 2019; Darcy, 2018). We argue that such resource poverty leads to lower performance in parasport, in part because their facilities are not ideal, and the risk of injury may be higher. Athletes may not be able to practice with maximum effort as they do not want to get injured. Additionally, the practice setting differs significantly from real-world competition, and the learning may not be effectively transferred.

Regarding how this problem of resource poverty should be addressed, Nagata et al. (2023) demonstrated that achieving good results in regional and international games can increase the motivation of private funders. However, this is something of a double bind for Lao PDR as they are far less likely to be successful due to the resource poverty in the first place. Another possible avenue is international aid. Foreign aid can help fund expensive parasport equipment and build modern facilities, which have been common ways to develop parasport in the Global South (Novak, 2017). While such an approach – often criticized as a “helicopter approach” (Schulenkorf et al., 2016) – can temporarily fulfill certain needs, this is not a sustainable way to achieve development objectives (Bauer & Moustakas, 2024). Furthermore, expensive parasport equipment and facilities cannot be purchased by the locals and there is no way but to become dependent on aid for future development (Haslett et al., 2023; Novak, 2017). Undoubtedly, the equipment and facility needs are tangible and urgent, but greater dependency may be generated if international aid is the only way for Lao PDR to fuel parasport development. As others have claimed, pursuing parasport high-performance reproduces Global South countries’ reliance on the Global North (Darcy, 2018; Novak, 2017; Swartz, 2022). It may be time to question parasport development that is oriented toward materialistic pursuits. The next theme suggests possibilities for more meaningful parasport developmental needs.

The Need for Coaching Knowledge: The Lack of Sport-Specific Parasport Coach Training

The second theme concerns a less tangible constraint, the coaches’ knowledge. Coaches say that they did not receive any official training to be a coach. C6, who was a Boccia coach, said:

I only had the basic training on Boccia… I haven’t had any professional training or a coaching certificate. I do want to get one, but I don’t think we have the budget to support coaches to get this type of training.

Similarly, wheelchair basketball coach, C1, stated:

I am not formally trained to be a coach. I became a coach because of my past history in being an athlete myself. I did some training but not a lot. I would not consider it as advance training and I do not have any coaching certificate.

As C5, who was a blind football coach, mentioned: “I really want to know which division or sectors or which international organization to endorse this certificate or the course because we don’t have here in Laos for sure.” As it appears coach training is not available in Lao PDR, they need to seek coach training in other ways. One avenue is receiving training in other countries. Some of the neighboring countries are more advanced in sport coaching and many coaches are trained in Thailand, for example. As C1 said: “in Thailand, they always have the wheelchair basketball clinics. Each session will run for two days, then you would do a practice and the discussion there.” Furthermore, as a powerlifting coach, C4, said, “I found, in Thailand, they are going to do this test for a certificate, and I have proposed to the NPC [National Paralympic Committee] to send two of our coaches to get training and to get the certificate to be licensed coaches.”

Developing coaches’ qualifications and knowledge might be where international aid can be applied more effectively. Some coaches had received coach training from parasport experts deployed by a governmental organization, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), or a non-governmental organization, Asian Development with the Disabled Persons (ADDP), from Japan. Goalball coach, C2, said:

We received support from ADDP, Japan, back in the day, who sent goalball experts to teach us, focusing on two skills: teaching skill and coaching skill for the Lao coaches and also to teach the athletes as well in 2008… then later, in the year 2018, I had a training from JICA who sent the Japanese experts to train us on being a coach properly.

Blind football coach, C5, also mentioned, “ADDP conducted a workshop in promoting skills for a para-athlete. It was the pathway for me to become a coach, and then I have led so many para-athletes to join and participate in a lot of competitions in international events.”

In Lao PDR, several government officers serve as coaches for parasport. A2, a wheelchair basketball athlete, pointed out “the current practice in NPC here is that when the staff, the coaches, the administrators, they join the national team to go into events, these people are sometimes not capable people in that sport.” The Vientiane Capital administrator, G1, expressed his concerns about the knowledge and skills of the current coaches and advocated for further training:

I know that government officers serve as coaches in the national team and travel with para-athletes to international competitions. We are not capable coaches in that sport. We don’t think we are highly qualified coaches. I think all coaches should receive training and learn how to work with para-athletes and how to deal with any liability cases. I think that coaches should be specialized and respected by para-athletes.

The current study provides evidence that coach training is a pressing need for parasport development in Lao PDR. Our findings are unique because reports on parasport coaching are mostly from North America, Europe, or Australia, and rarely from Global South nations (Bentzen et al., 2020). The need to produce more parasport coaches has been discussed in Global North parasport policy research (De Bosscher et al., 2015) and a recent study more clearly claimed that the system of training for coaches should be established for parasport development (Pankowiak et al, 2023). Our findings for a Global South nation align with the importance of providing advanced and specialized training opportunities for parasport coaches. Although a lack of such training opportunities and qualifications is not uncommon, even in the Global North. An official coach training system has been established only in a few areas (Taylor et al., 2015; Bentzen et al., 2020), such as Canada’s National Coaching Certificate Programs, the emerging Para-Disability Coach Education and Learning Project of the European Union, and some sport-specific programs by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in para-athletics and National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) coaching courses. It is not clear, however, to what extent the above training can help with high-performance coaching. On the other hand, developing coach training systems can increase knowledge about disability, sport classification, and parasport equipment (Duarte et al., 2018; Pankowiak et al., 2023), which might not only facilitate effective training but also help establish safer sporting environments for para-athletes (Rutland et al., 2022).

Although the coach training deficiency was identified, addressing this issue would require significant groundwork. In fact, systematic coach training for parasport coaches in the Global North is also in its infancy because coach development heavily relies on informal training such as mentoring and learning through personal experiences and non-formal training such as at conferences and seminars (Bentzen et al., 2020; Duarte et al., 2018; Townsend et al., 2022). While attending the existing coach training sessions might fulfill the need to some degree, it may not be realistic due to language barriers. Thus, a first step for Lao parasport development could be to develop coaching manuals for specific parasports and to conduct workshops to disseminate them (Cregan et al., 2007). The development of coaching manuals may require collaboration between Lao coaches and international experts, which could be an area where foreign aid can contribute funding more sustainably. Furthermore, assistance for Lao parasport coaches to engage in active networking with other parasport coaches in other countries could improve the standard of coaching in Lao PDR (Dehghansai et al., 2020). For this exchange of coaching knowledge to occur, language learning support may be needed because the Lao people typically do not have high English language proficiency, a necessity in networking (Achren & Kittiphanh, 2020).While it is a more ethical approach than simply providing materials to the locals, building the system for coach education must still be largely reliant on capital from Global North nations for its initial development. Thus, like the materialistic pursuits, it involves risk, leading to dependency. If not parasport materials or coaching education, what are some other possible ways to facilitate the development of parasport? We discuss the need for wider societal development issues next.

The Need for Income: Labor Equity for Sustainable Parasport Development

The third theme, societal environment as a constraint, demonstrated that social change, particularly in the Lao PDR society, is necessary for continuing parasport development, enabling athletes to maintain their livelihoods. To keep competing as an athlete, they need to pay for related expenses such as travel and nutrition, as athletes mentioned: “for travel, for example, from my house to the training center, I spend all my money…” (A5, para-swimmer); “I mean, the budget of nutrition and stuff. Most of the times, I am self-funded” (A4, track and field athlete). However, there is not a high expectation to earn money from sport among athletes as “para-athletes don’t consider sports as a profession” (A7, Goalball athlete) because “we cannot make a sport for living here in Laos” (A4, Track and Field athlete). Moreover, people with disabilities in Lao PDR do not have financial aid: “In Laos, if you are a disabled person, you don’t have a welfare compared to other countries. You don’t get a monthly allowance” (C3, Swimming coach). Thus, to keep competing as an athlete, they need a job for sustainable income. However, for people with disabilities in Laos, getting a job is not easy. As A7, a goalball athlete, mentioned: “people have pessimistic thoughts, … they [people with disabilities] won’t be able to find jobs.” Certainly, athletes expressed a feeling of exclusion from employment: “I mean, I would say in another country, especially abroad or Western, they really include the people with disability. But here, I feel isolated sometimes” (A3, powerlifting athlete). We acknowledge that even in the West (or Global North) there is still not the kind of parity this athlete implies in employment for people with disabilities (Barnes, 2019). Nevertheless, the above quote demonstrates the disconnect the athlete feels from broader society in Lao. But, through sport, athletes appear to be more empowered and willing to work: “when they are engaged in sports, they don’t just stay at home, they don’t have the stigma anymore, and this could lead them to have future career and jobs” (C1, wheelchair basketball). So, what is needed is “the inclusiveness in the policy, … for career pathway” (C5, blind football coach). Envisioning such policy change, Boccia coach (C6) said:

I want to have the resources to gather the athletes to help them train. That would be the foundation one. We need to provide accommodation facilities. We need to help them to engage in income generation activity. Some sort of vocation or other profession, like working in a cafe, serving or making coffee.

Athletes consider jobs not only necessary for income, but also for opportunities for personal development. Boccia athlete (A1) said:

I want our association to be able to not only provide the sports but also skill development, and also jobs, so that para-athletes can both play sports and also work, and they can enjoy and be happy. … I want people to have a better future. I want them to have daily jobs. I want them to be able to develop themselves.

For parasport development, the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce is not enough. It is because, even if they are employed, their employer may not be supportive of them continuing to play sport to a competitively high standard. As reported by the powerlifting coach, C4, some employers were not happy when athletes left early for sport practice: “some private sector, they would not allow the time for their workers to go to practice like this, for example, and if they do, they may get fired from the job.”

In summary, employment opportunities for parasport athletes are a significant constraint to parasport development. While some researchers have advocated for policies and laws that enable people with disabilities to access sports facilities and programs (Dehghansai et al., 2020), the issue of employment for people with disabilities presents a distinct dimension, and this important issue has been overlooked in parasport development research elsewhere. It is ironic because, according to the IPC (2024), employment should be considered as one of the key agendas toward the goal of an inclusive society. The reason for the oversight may be that most parasport development research has been conducted by researchers from the Global North (e.g., Dehghansai et al., 2020; Patatas et al., 2020; Pankowiak et al., 2023), where some funding may be available for some elite-level para-athletes without them engaging in income-generating activities. On the other hand, as a para swim coach mentioned, people do not receive social security benefits in Lao PDR, and there is no money for the Lao government to support para-athletes full-time. In Lao PDR, equal employment opportunities are necessary for sustainable parasport development because the key stakeholder – para-athletes – cannot continue playing without that.

Enhancing employment of people with disabilities cannot be done with sport alone. In other words, there is no generalizable evidence that involvement in sport increases employability (Coalter et al., 2020). Even mega-events such as the Paralympics have had a quite limited effect on the local employment policies and practice as employment in a completely different domain from sport (Goh, 2020). As demonstrated in a sport for development context, direct intervention on the target development outcomes is necessary to leverage the impact of sport and achieve the intended outcomes (Levermore, 2010; Warner et al., 2020). It is true that, in the Global South nations, researchers report changes in the image of disability within the general population after seeing people with disabilities play sport (Akambadi et al., 2023; De Souza & Brittain, 2022; Nagata et al., 2023). This is significant as the image of them being weak and incompetent is often one of the constraining factors of employment (Khounpaseuth, 2024). Still, many other factors need to be addressed to improve the employment status in Lao PDR, such as increasing accessibility, particularly in areas like accessible toilets and transportation (Swartz, 2022). In the case of Lao PDR, inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral collaborations across the Ministry of Education and Sport, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, and other NGOs would be necessary to move this agenda forward.

Implications

The current study identified the needs for parasport development in terms of infrastructure and equipment, coach education systems, and more inclusive employment systems within the broader society. While all of these are indeed important to consider for more sustainable parasport development, policymakers and international development aid organizations should consider how their interventions are implemented. In addition to contributing materials such as sport wheelchairs and prosthetics, as well as parasport facilities, targeted development is needed to improve the system for parasport coach education. Particularly, creating a training system with local stakeholders can have a more sustainable impact. For example, policy makers and international aid organizations can assist in developing a local coach training system by funding coaching experts from outside Lao PDR to work in the country for an extended period. Such developmental activities would likely have a significant and more sustainable impact on parasport athletes and coaches in Lao PDR. Helping to fund Lao coaches to make extended visits to other countries where parasport coaching is more advanced might accelerate the development process. But, without greater change in contributing to a more inclusive society in Lao more generally, these suggestions would, inevitably, be limited. The Lao PDR government can engage in campaigns to promote inclusive employment throughout the wider society. The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare can identify individuals with disabilities in local communities, and the Ministry of Education and Sport can provide them with education to enhance their employability. Additionally, Lao policymakers need to raise awareness about inclusive employment and create a system to promote the hiring of people with disabilities. International development organizations could leverage the generally positive image of sport to help make employment more accessible to all people with disabilities.

Limitations

While the findings shed light on a rarely studied parasport development in the Global South, which was done by a diverse team of local and international practitioners and academics, which was a strength of the study, we acknowledge some limitations. We had only one athlete and one coach from each sport. Having a small number of individuals in each sport might have led us to overlook important needs for each sport. Considering the heterogeneity across parasport (Patatas et al., 2020), future research should investigate parasport-specific development needs in the Global South. Additionally, interviews were conducted through a translator, which may have resulted in a loss of meaning during the translation process. Although the individual used was an experienced professional translator, and the translator asked the interviewees if there were any questions about the technical terms, very nuanced expressions may still have been lost.