Motives for the practicing sports of Spanish Paralympic athletes

Abstract

The Paralympic Games are the greatest exponent of the world competitive sport practiced by disabilities people. This study analyzed the motives for the sports practice of the Spanish Paralympic athletes participants in the Games in 2012, using the questionnaire Participation Motivation Inventory, in Spanish version, consisting of 30 items. The sample consists of 69 athletes of the maximum exponent of the Spanish Paralympic sport, and different disabilities (blind and visually impaired, and physically disabled motor. Exploratory factor analysis conducted (with Varimax rotation) indicated with a total variance explained of 55.28% a set of four factors: Social integration, Personal, Social and sporting and Overcoming. The importance given by athletes to different items of the scale indicates that the most important motives for sports were related to Social and Overcoming. In conclusion, we can indicate the homogeneity in Paralympic group, in terms of motivation in sport.