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People with disabilities do not have equal opportunities to participate in sports compared to mainstreamathletes. To counteract this, the last few decades have seen growing efforts to mainstreamparasports. This study investigated how underlying ableist norms shape opportunities and conditionsfor people with disabilities in the context of mainstreaming within Swedish sports. Themethod of data collection was 19 semi-structured interviews with para-athletes and parents (9women and 10 men). After theory- and data-driven coding, ableism was applied as a conceptuallens. Findings show that the inherent comparative logic within sports triggers ableist manifestationsand creates exclusionary practices towards para-athletes. For example, able-bodied idealsare internalized by para-athletes, influencing the way they perceive and value their athleticism.Conclusively, although comparisons of performance are an inextricable part of sports, the studyhighlights how mainstreaming contributes to emphasizing differences, thereby reinforcing ableistnorms and limiting opportunities for para-athletes.

Introduction: This study examines the significance of playing-up (participating in training and playing with older age groups) and mixed-gender play (training and playing with opposite gender) for Swedish female football players to reach the highest international level.

Methods: Drawing on questionnaire data from senior female football players who play in the first league in Sweden or abroad as a professional, we examined their experiences of playing-up and mixed-gender play during their child and youth years, and its significance for being selected for the senior national teams, i.e., Swedish U23 and women's national team.

Results and discussion: Findings revealed that about half of the players between age 9–12 and over 80% between age 13–15 reported experiences of training or playing with older players, showing that playing-up is a common experience among players who reach women's elite level. Regarding mixed-gender experiences, less than 25% of the participants reported that they trained or played with boys between age 9–12 and between 13 and 15 years. The findings showed further that 41% of the players had been selected for the senior national teams. Logistic regression analysis showed that experiences of playing-up or mixed-gender play between age 9–12 or 13–15 did not increase the likelihood of being selected for the senior national teams. This is one of few studies to date investigating the impact of playing-up and mixed-gender play on females' pathways to senior national team levels in football. Understanding how playing-up and mixed-gender play relates to athlete development and for attaining expertise in young adulthood can guide coaches and organizations in structuring training environments that foster sustainable development.

Through studying an ongoing mainstreaming of parasports within the Swedish sports system, this study contributes with implications for practice, as well as filling the scholarly gap in how community sports clubs are doing inclusion of people with disabilities in the daily sports practice. Through thematic analysis, semi-structured interviews with 18 club representatives were coded. This was followed by analysis with frame factor theory, which makes visible how conditions within–and around–sports clubs shape the doing of inclusion of people with disabilities in the mainstream environment. The results show how various limiting conditions, such as lacking information regarding mainstreaming, create issues in clubs’ doing of inclusion. Leaders’ individual conditions and actions are highlighted as a key feature in this doing, with individual approaches seen to create challenges in what kind of inclusion athletes meet in their daily sports practices, currently and in the future. Lastly, ableist conditions of sports are discussed, and questions are raised regarding if mainstreaming actually is an efficient means for achieving inclusion of people with disabilities.

Introduction: Efforts to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion in sport aim to challenge systemic discrimination and promote equitable participation. In Sweden, Strategy 2030 represents a national initiative to integrate parasport into mainstream sport structures by embedding inclusive practices across all national sports organizations (NSOs). This study examines how key stakeholders within Swedish NSOs construct, interpret, and implement inclusion in this policy context. Guided by social identity theory (SIT), the study explores how processes of categorization, identification, and comparison influence ingroup/outgroup boundaries and shape inclusion practices.

Methods: The study draws on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 12 stakeholders formally mandated to implement inclusion within Swedish NSOs. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns in how inclusion is understood, negotiated, and enacted within organizational settings.

Results: The analysis revealed persistent tensions between formal commitments to inclusion and structural conditions that reproduce hierarchies of ability and belonging. Participants expressed strong normative support for inclusive values but described challenges in translating these values into practice within entrenched organizational cultures marked by ableist norms and resource disparities. Stakeholders also negotiated identity boundaries beyond the abled/disabled binary, indicating that inclusion efforts are shaped by intersecting dimensions of identity.

Discussion: The findings illuminate how identity processes, power relations, and normative assumptions influence the implementation of inclusion policy at the organizational level. Despite policy ambitions, structural and cultural constraints limit transformative change. The study contributes to understanding the complexities of fostering inclusion in sport governance and underscores the need for more equitable, reflexive, and context-sensitive policy frameworks.

This article analyses conditions for including parasports in the Swedish Floorball Federation (SFF) as a case in an ongoing large-scale organizational change aimed towards equal opportunities for persons with disabilities (PwD) within the Swedish Sports Confederation. Frame factor theory is used to analyse the SFF’s conditions for this inclusion in a pre-stage of change. Thus, this article aims to facilitate opportunities for equal conditions for sports participation. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews and 55 questionnaire responses from federation and district representatives informed the analysis. Findings revealed enabling conditions, such as a general benignity towards inclusion, but also highlighted limiting conditions such as mainstream representatives lack of knowledge about the process, which can lead to further marginalization of PwD. The conclusion was drawn that defining the meaning of inclusion in a pre-stage, regarding both policy and practice, is a pressing matter for the SFF to succeed in its continued process of including parasports.

Aim: The Swedish Sports Confederation is performing a large organisational change. This involves closing the Parasport Federation, one of their 73 national sports organisations (NSO) which today sponsors 14 sports for athletes with disabilities. These athletes will be included in other NSOs offering the same or similar sports, mainly for athletes without disabilities. This ongoing project follows this change within one of the NSOs, the Swedish Floorball Federation (SFF). The project investigates on individual and organisational levels the knowledge of, preparedness for, and experienced opportunities and obstacles to a process of change toward equal conditions for the participation of athletes with disabilities.

Methods: Both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods have been used. Questionnaires were sent to the board and administrative staff of the SFF as well as to administrative staff in the 21 district associations with a total of 55 responses. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 35 chosen stakeholders within the board and staff of the federation, chairpersons of the districts and representatives from five clubs with floorball for people with and without disabilities. In these clubs, 15 additional interviews were carried out among athletes with and without disabilities and their relatives.

Results: Preliminary results from questionnaires indicate that there is a lack of knowledge regarding the process among some key stakeholders within SFF. For example, only about one third of the respondents at federation and district level claim to know enough about the process to be able to tell another person about it. The results from the interviews also indicate a concern, mainly among stakeholders, that the needs of athletes with disabilities might not become a priority in the same way as it is today in the Parasport Federation, with specific knowledge and experience in disability sports. However, based on the interviews, the general opinion seems to be that athletes with disabilities will gain a deeper sense of belonging by joining the same federation and club as athletes without disabilities, who in return will gain an understanding of disability sports and their athletes.

Discussion/Conclusions: Overall, there is a clear will to develop disability sports within the SFF. However, for reaching equal conditions an obstacle that must be dealt with in the further process is the risk that athletes with disabilities will become less of a priority. Furthermore, there seems to be a lack of knowledge and preparedness for the change on some key levels, and this calls for communicative strategies about what should be achieved through the organisational change. With a successful change, there is an opportunity for understanding about people with disabilities to spread outside the sports context and thus create awareness in a wider sense.