What does it look like when sport truly includes everyone? Last June, over 1,700 players with and without disabilities gathered in Pamplona, Spain, to show the world exactly that. Now, the full story of what happened – and why it matters – has been captured in the MAGIC 2025 Comprehensive Impact Report.
What Is MAGIC?
MAGIC (Mixed Ability Games, Inclusion and Coproduction) was an international event built around a simple but radical idea: Mixed Ability sport. A model where disabled and non-disabled people should play sport together, on equal terms, under the same rules. No separate categories. No adaptations. Just sport – for everyone.
Organised by International Mixed Ability Sports (IMAS), last year’s event in Pamplona was the biggest yet. Fifty-four teams from 24 countries competed across eight sports, including rugby, basketball, rowing, football, and – for the first time – Mixed Ability floor curling. Six hundred and fifty volunteers helped make it happen, and the event was watched by over 150,000 people online.
What the Report Found
The numbers are striking. Using Social Return on Investment methodology, Substance calculated that every €1 invested in the IMART and MAGIC and the associated Iactivities, they generated €23.49 in social value, for a total of €25.39 million across the 2024/25 year. The biggest driver? Improvements in mental health and wellbeing, which alone accounted for over €14 million of that figure.
But the report goes well beyond the financial. An independent survey of 455 participants found that nine out of ten said MAGIC made them feel more connected to others. Stakeholder satisfaction was uniformly high – every single score fell between 7 and 10 out of 10, with “Inclusive Values” and “Positive role in mental health” rated highest of all.
Stories That Stay With You
Perhaps the most powerful sections of the report are the personal stories. From people travelling abroad for the first time, to coaches and organisers finally being rewarded for 10 years of tireless work on a global stage, the common theme is the sense of membership, belonging and innovation that Mixed Ability generates, and how events like IMART and MAGIC change how disabled players are seen in their communities: not as “the disabled guy”, but as someone who plays ‘normal’ rugby and has two World Cups. These aren’t outliers. They’re the norm for a movement growing faster than ever. The report also traces what happens after events like MAGIC. Argentina is a case in point: three players attended the very first IMART in Bradford in 2015. Today, more than 50 Mixed Ability rugby clubs operate across Argentina, with 2,500 players active weekly across South America. The ripple effect of a single event, captured in data and human stories alike.
The MAGIC 2025 Impact Report is available now. Read it, share it, and see for yourself what sport looks like when nobody is left out.
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE
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*The MAGIC 2025 project was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and supported by Flutter Entertainment, Smurfit Westrock, and partners across Navarra, Spain.
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