ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how each programme frames the body of the athlete within a consumerist context and assesses the different messages communicated about the athlete, the sports in which they compete and how the 'impaired' person is valued in contemporary British society. It argues that the framing of difference through the images, although seeking to communicate equality, only rarely achieves its aim for parallel, equal representation. Advertising is incredibly important for both Games, but luxury products are particularly linked with the Olympics, encouraging customers to feel like Olympians, like gods. There is a long history of using semiotic analysis for visual analysis, which, alongside discourse analysis, can provide the reader of a text with a great deal of depth. It is ironic that the image of Oscar Pistorius reduces the extent to which the celebrity is present but also stresses the reason for his very stardom as an athlete.
