"Yes, we can!" Sport paralimpico e new celebrities

The Paralympic Games are the main event to talk about sport, media and disability. By achieving sports performance, it is possible to redefine some key elements that characterize the controversial relationship between media and disability: from the stereotyped vision of stigma, to the social visibility of the body “out of frame”. Today the media-speeches tell stories of Paralympic athletes that go beyond the stereotype of the “Supercrip”, offering on the cultural market the exploits of new heroes: athletes, super-human, testimonials of bodies that can be improved and upgraded thanks to new technologies. Disabled athletes are thus transformed into new celebrities, new “pop icons” of the cultural and advertising industry. In this context, the social imagery of disability is changing it frees itself from the historical media marginalization, to become an object and a consumer product which, through the myth of Paralympic sport, opens up to social and cultural changes.