Abstract
While various forms of sporting participation are developing, people with disability may be limited in their physical and sporting activities. Nevertheless, under certain conditions, portingcompetition enables the development of a form of participation that doesn’t have to be backed by a logic of rehabilitation and makes possible processes of destigmatization whose equivalents would be hard to find in other social spaces. This raises the question of how these sporting competitions are conceived and staged. In this contribution, we study the evolution of sports competitions at the French Federation of Sports for the physically handicapped between 1968 (Tel Aviv Games) and 1976 (Toronto Games). Using documentary data, in particular issues of the federal newsletter, we analyze how sporting competitions are evolving in France, based on disputes and criticisms of past event. Thanks to this pragmatic approach, we are able to highlight the development in action of a particularly innovative (interactive and contextual) approach to disability, which predates the conceptual developments of the late 20th century.