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This phenomenological study aims to explore how media promote and should promote wheelchair rugby.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 athletes at National Wheelchair Rugby Championship. In using a reflective thematical analysis approach, three themes were identified – media coverage: the promise of an unknown quantity; the battle of inspiration and athleticism; and leverage marketing and promote the “wow”.

Lacking fair representation from media resulting in the perception and reception gap between the general public and spectators was identified and explained by most of the athletes. Besides urging increased coverage with a shifting focus on athleticism, the important role of marketing was highlighted.

In short, the “wow” factor of the sport is its aggressiveness which can be its bestselling feature and used by stakeholders for maximum impact when marketing wheelchair rugby.

This study examines the relationship between spectator motivation and sports consumption behaviours in the context of an adaptive sport. Respondents were spectators from five matches held in the Midwest United States involving registered United States Quad Rugby Association teams. The Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption (MSSC; Trail & James, 2001) was adapted to measure spectator motivation and predict repatronage intentions and online media consumption among wheelchair rugby spectators. Results indicated that two spectator motivation factors, physical skill and knowledge, were related to repatronage intentions. In addition, knowledge and vicarious achievement were found to be related to online media consumption.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of para-sport spectator motivation on spectator revisit intentions and the mediating effect of attitude on motivation and revisit intentions.

This study was conducted in the context of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympic Games. A total of 350 respondents completed a survey. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data.

Inspiration, supercrip image, physical skill/aesthetics, and social interaction had strong influences on attitudes toward Winter Paralympics, and attitude was also shown to have a strong impact on revisit intentions. The results also revealed the mediating effect of attitude on para-sports motivation factors (inspiration, supercrip image, physical skill/aesthetics, and social interaction) and revisit intentions.

This study extends the literature on para-sport spectator motivation. Although there are a few studies examining spectators' motivation to attend para-sport events, there is limited research on the relationships among motivation, attitude, and revisit intention based on consumer attitude theories. The results are valuable to sport managers in increasing the propensity of para-sports events by understanding the factors that lead to changes in attitudes and increases in future attendance.

This chapter examines the (in)visibility and symbolism of women in sports governance on the island of Ireland, taking as its main empirical focus available data on the boards of government-funded national governing bodies, north and south. The distinctiveness of the Irish case is explained by three factors: the governance minefield, itself a legacy of Irish-British relations and partition in the 1920s, recognisable patterns in gender relations north and south and the functioning of sport as a safe, largely unquestioned and intriguingly vague symbolism for inclusion and peace in Northern Ireland. These conditions have resonance today, not only for women in sport and the approach to quotas, for instance, but that also play out in the delivery of Brexit and the struggles that characterise Irish-British relations more generally. The chapter concludes with a consideration of future challenges and areas for further research.

The Rajapaksa regime over the 2005–2022 period promoted a national-popular project based on a militarised Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism promoting a market-driven rentier economy. It illustrated a form of patrimonial capitalism undermining public accountability and the efficacy of the state bureaucracy. This popular-national project was dependent on strengthening ties with China while distancing relations with India and the Global North (USA and the EU). The ways in which the external relations were coordinated reinforced discrimination against Tamil and Muslim communities, while disregarding their demands for justice and reparations. The increasing integration of the economy with financial markets, driven by the Central Bank, amplified the commercialisation of the state, restraining public revenues and state oversight. Meanwhile, the militarisation of the state involved the commercialisation of the military, opaque military budgets and violent repression of protests. The Rajapaksa regime, which enabled a minority-privileged (leisure) class to culturally flourish in regulated safe spaces, also instigated multiple protests from below demanding democracy as well as justice.

Dr Robert Steadward has been the International Paralympic Committee's only president since its inception in 1989. Within the Olympic movement, he is an active IOC member having roles on the 2000 Commission on Reform and Olympic Truce Foundation, and he has also been an integral driving force behind the growth and development of the Paralympic Games. Here he talks with David Legg of Mount Royal College about how the IPC'smarketing capabilities have evolved, the challenges facing the IPC, and current issues facing the IPC's marketing efforts.