Understanding the prevalence and type of talent transfers of Australian Paralympians: an analysis of secondary data

National sports systems worldwide are constantly evaluating pathways to optimise athlete talent. Talent transfer is one alternative pathway that may increase the chance of identifying and developing successful elite athletes (Bullock et al., 2009). Talent transfer may be more significant in para-sports, compared to able-bodied sports, due to relatively lower athlete numbers resulting in fewer athletes progressing along the sport pathway to the elite level (Baker et al., 2017). Despite this, talent transfer in para-sports has primarily occurred informally, with knowledge and implementation of this process drawn from a limited stock of research on able-bodied athletes and sports (e.g., Cury et al., 2022; MacNamara & Collins, 2015). Of particular interest is the similarities of task constraints of donor and recipient sports that may facilitate talent transfer (Bullock et al., 2009; Teunissen et al., 2021), which is unclear for para-sports due to unique contextual factors (Patatas et al., 2020). Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate whether patterns between donor and recipient sport task constraints contribute to talent transfer in Paralympic sport.