Sports Jessica Bentley

March 30, 2026 Jessica Bentley  Dr. Sowers Fair Play or Political Stand? The decision to ban Russia and Belarus from the 2026 Paralympic Games in Milano Cortino has sparked an ongoing debate about the fairness, politics, and the core values of sports. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has justified this exclusion in response to geopolitical actions. This response argues that such measures are necessary to uphold the integrity and values of the Paralympic movement. Does this decision truly align with the values of the Paralympic Games?  The IPC tries to promote principles like inclusion, equality, and respect. By banning an entire nation's team, critics argue that the organization is contradicting t heir own mission. Paralympic athletes have trained for years, and even their entire life, for this under very difficult circumstances. The athletes are being punished for actions that are out of their control. When looking at things from this perspective, the ban of these...

March 22, 2026 Jessica Bentley  Dr. Sowers Leveling the Playing Field Classification in the para sports world plays a key role in the Paralympic movement. This is designed to help make sure that athletes compete on an even playing field. This is not like able-bodied sports, where categories like age or weight often determine the groups that you compete in. Para sport classification seeks to minimize the impact of impairment on athletic performance so that sporting excellence and not the severity of disability decides outcomes ( https://www.paralympic.org/classification ).  The center of the system that helps para athletes is the athlete evaluation process. This process asks and answers three very important questions:1. Does the athlete have an eligible impairment? 2. Does that impairment meet the minimum impact required for the sport? 3. What sport class best reflects the functional limitations affecting performance? The order...

March 9, 2026 Jessica Bentley  Dr. Sowers Creating Inclusive Pathways When helping people stay active, fit, and engaged in sports for life, the first experience someone has with physical activity can make all the difference. The model of this belongs to the Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model. This model is used in Canada and helps to guide how individuals progress in sports from an early age and tracks involvement to a high-performance competitor or a lifelong participant.  In comparison, the traditional LTAD model includes stages like active start, fundamentals, and training to win. The version of this for people with disabilities adds two extra pre-stages. These stages are awareness and first contact. These stages recognize that people with impairments, especially those with impairments brought on later in life, may never have been aware of sports opportunities or may have had few chances to try physical activities in a welcoming environment.  The awareness stag...

February 25, 2026 Jessica Bentley  Dr. Sowers More Than A Story   There are significant differences in the coverage of the Olympics and the Paralympics by media outlets. Able-bodied athletes are analyzed, celebrated, and discussed constantly on TV, while Paralympic athletes and other people who are disabled in sports often remain on the sidelines in the TV world. When Paralympic athletes do appear, there is often storytelling of frequent challenges that endure, portraying the athletes as either victims, “superscrips”, or objects of inspiration rather than the skilled athletes. In order to improve the coverage of the Paralympics and other disabled sports, there needs to be a consideration of quality over quantity by the media representation.   The coverage today of disabled sports and how these athletes are framed and portrayed by the media is seen as problematic. The media outlets are often portraying these athletes as...

Leveling the Playing Field? Technology, Disability, and Fairness in Sports February 16, 2026 Jessica Bentley  Dr. Sowers Leveling the Playing Field? Technology, Disability, and Fairness in Sports The sports world has always celebrated human achievement by pushing athletes to their limits physically, emotionally, and mentally. In the past couple of years, adaptive technology for athletes has evolved.  For example, running blades for people who are amputees have become more advanced, therefore enhancing running performance for athletes. This has sparked an interesting debate among the world of sports. How does this development affect the fairness in sports? Should these tools be allowed in sports? How is this equitable for athletes who are at a disadvantage based on the nations they are from?  When it comes to adaptive gear for disabled athletes, technology has the power to change what is possible for athletes. Devices such as prosthetic limbs, running blades, or exoskeleto...