Living with imperfect comparisons: The challenges and limitations of comparative paralympic sport policy research

•Reviews contemporary comparative sport policy scholarship.•Identifies philosophical, methodological and practical challenges and limitations of comparative research.•Demonstrates how these challenges and limitations are reflected in the sport management/policy literature.•Establishes a frame of reference for future comparative sport policy research within the Paralympic domain.In this article, the authors explores the challenges and limitations of conducting cross-comparative management/policy research in the Paralympic sporting domain. The comparative sport policy debate in able-bodied sport has emerged, in part, due to the increasing complexity, uncertainty, and competitive nature of high performance sport environments and a desire to understand why some countries are more successful than others at international sporting competition. The same issues and questions have also emerged within the Paralympic context. As a precursor to establishing a research agenda in this area, however, it was deemed important to begin to address the epistemological, methodological, and practical issues in comparative sport research. The analysis draws upon the broader sociological literature and examples from the Paralympic sporting context to identify and discuss the challenges and limitations of the comparative approach as well as recommendations for mitigating against them.