title: Exploring administrative legacies from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and the impacts on national parasport organisations in Brazil
Creators: name: Zardini Filho, Carlos Eugenio
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Paralympic Games
subject: parasport management
subject: administration
subject: Brazil

description: Host countries have been motivated to stage sport mega-events by the potential long-term legacies arising from these events. Scholars have proposed models, tools and methods to categorise and assess these legacies and their impacts on host countries. However, the legacy literature has largely focussed on economic, social, sport participation, and infrastructural effects, mostly from the Olympic Games. Little attention has been paid to changes in the administrative processes of national sport governing bodies (NGBs) that arise through hosting sport mega-events, particularly the Paralympic Games. Changes in administrative processes may produce positive or problematic impacts on the way NGBs deliver elite parasport programs. Hence, there is a need for further research into how hosting mega-events can affect internal organisational processes and produce administrative legacies for parasport NGBs. To address this gap in knowledge, this thesis explores how the Paralympic Games directly or indirectly produced enduring changes in administrative processes, as well as the impacts on the administrative operations of parasport NGBs in Brazil. A qualitative study involving twenty-six semi-structured interviews from five parasport NGBs in Brazil was conducted in order to garner insights into how parasport managers within NGBs perceive the administrative legacies arising from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. In addition, an analysis of NGB documents was conduced to examine the organisational contexts, policies, structures, and processes regarding the implementation of elite parasport programs for the Tokyo 2020-21 Paralympic cycle. The document analysis revealed increased funding, new regulations, tangible legacies, and potential influences on the management of parasport NGBs coming from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. The analysed documents also identified funding dependencies of parasport NGBs on public resources that significantly shaped the way administrative legacies emerged. Additionally, interview data highlighted the unplanned nature of administrative legacies that emerged from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, as well as problematic administrative impacts of the Games on the parasport NGBs. From the parasport managers’ perceptions, key administrative changes were analysed in relation to workflows, deadlines, controlling tasks, risk management, actors involved, and formalisation. Drawing upon the concepts of institutional theory, the participants revealed how isomorphic pressures contributed to enduring organisational changes in the NGBs’ administrative processes. However, the extent to which the administrative legacies impacted parasport NGBs varied across parasports in positive and negative ways, such as, enhancing the professionalisation of the NGBs while increasing internal bureaucracy. The research findings contribute empirical and conceptual insights to advancing knowledge concerning major sport event legacies with regard to i) administrative processes and ii) the specific context of the Paralympic Games. This thesis also offers valuable applied insights for policymakers and parasport managers regarding the administrative challenges and opportunities related to hosting mega-events such as the Paralympic Games.