Sport and disability: a new perspective for cooperation

Sport in Public Policies is establishing itself through the commitment of many voluntary associations, non-governmental organizations and national governments. To strengthen its capacity for aggregation, communication and public well-being, it cannot fail to also deal with disability. The international Paralympic movement is already strong and branched out and is also expressed in the Olympics for Paralympians (Paris 2024). A further step forward, both at an international and local level, can take place by encouraging the practice of sports, competitive sports, where desired, but above all recreational practice in every sector of disability. Not only motor but also cognitive and genetic. Sport is a vehicle for social, individual and economic development. Drawing on the experiences put in place and acquired by the various international associations and national states, the panel aims to highlight that countries that normally prevail in many Olympic sports are absent or do not achieve the same results in the Paralympic context because they lack qualified coaches and adequate technological tools. This opens up a new space for international cooperation which will be able to provide capacity building programs and support for the creation of laboratories for the preparation of prostheses or other tools necessary for sporting activity also for children and people with motor and cognitive disabilities.