ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how visually impaired athletes form their identities through elite disability sport. Initially, this chapter examines the contestation of a disabled identity in this social space and reflects upon the absence of disabled terminology in the contemporary disability sport. Following this, the chapter then discusses how the players negotiate their blind/visually impaired identities. This discussion explores both the role of visually impaired-specific language and terminology and the significance of embodied experience, particularly when considering why certain players choose to “pass” as sighted. Finally, the remainder of the chapter explores the construction of a shared “athlete-first” identity that does not celebrate disability or blindness. This male-dominated “sighted world” is built upon “banter” and shared humour, which serves to reinforce the disparity in power between the blind and the partially sighted athletes.
