Townsend, Robert C.Huntley, TaboCushion, Christopher J.Fitzgerald, Hayley2019-05-0220182019-05-022018Townsend, R. C., Huntley, T., Cushion, C. J., & Fitzgerald, H. (2018). ‘It’s not about disability, I want to win as many medals as possible’: The social construction of disability in high-performance coaching. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902187975261012-6902https://hdl.handle.net/10289/12506This article draws on the theoretical concepts of Pierre Bourdieu to provide a critical analysis of the social construction of disability in high-performance sport coaching. Data were generated using a qualitative cross-case comparative methodology, comprising 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in high-performance disability sport, and interviews with coaches and athletes from a cross-section of Paralympic sports. We discuss how in both cases ‘disability’ was assimilated into the ‘performance logic’ of the sporting field as a means of maximising symbolic capital. Furthermore, coaches were socialised into a prevailing legitimate culture in elite disability sport that was reflective of ableist, performance-focused and normative ideologies about disability. In this article we unpack the assumptions that underpin coaching in disability sport, and by extension use sport as a lens to problematise the construction of disability in specific social formations across coaching cultures. In so doing, we raise critical questions about the interrelation of disability and sport.application/pdfenThis is an author’s accepted version of an article published in the journal: International Review for the Sociology of Sport. © 2018 Sage.Journal Article10.1177/1012690218797526