Without classification there is no Para–sport. It is crucial to the integrity and fairness of Para–sport competition.

What is Classification?

Challenging the interests of Para sport is the threat of one-sided and predictable competition, in which the least impaired athlete always wins.

Classification is the cornerstone of the Paralympic Movement, it determines which athletes are eligible to compete in a sport and how athletes are grouped together for competition. In Para sports, athletes are grouped by the degree of activity limitation resulting from the impairment. This, to a certain extent, is similar to grouping athletes by age, gender or weight.

Different sports require athletes to perform different activities, such as: sprinting, propelling a wheelchair, rowing and shooting. As sports require different activities, the impact of the impairment on each sport also differs. Therefore, for classification to minimise the impact of impairment on sport performance, classification must be sport specific.

Classification aims to minimise the impact of the impairment on athletes’ performance so that the sporting excellence determines which athlete or team is ultimately victorious. Ensuring that athletes are classified prior to competing is crucial to safeguarding the integrity and credibility of the competition.

It is important to underline that the competitive structure provided by classification systems is not only key for elite sport but also necessary for promoting grassroots participation in Para sports for people with an impairment.

History of Classification

In 1948 Dr Ludwig Guttmann organised the first para-sport competitions, as an extension of the rehabilitation process. In the 1950s, questions were raised that “consideration must be given to whether it would not be fairer to divide sports into classes,” to ensure equal competition opportunities for – at that time – athletes with higher and lower spinal cord lesions. It was the beginning of the development of medical systems of classification. Sport classes reflected the structure of a rehabilitation hospital with separate classes for people with spinal cord injuries, amputation and those with other neurological or orthopaedic conditions.

Based on their medical diagnosis, athletes received a sport class which covered them in all sports offered. Consequently this prevented an athlete with lower limb paralysis (inability to move a part of their body), due to a spinal cord injury competing in a wheelchair race against a double above knee amputee – despite both having fully functional upper bodies with which to propel a wheelchair.

Sport drives classification

As the Paralympic Movement matured, the focus switched away from rehabilitation and was driven by sport.

In the 1980s, supported by the demands of Games’ organising committees to reduce the number of sport classes, classification transitioned from medical to functional classification, a system still used in many para-sports today (an exception being the classification system used for athletes with a visual impairment which still remains medically based).

The main factor that determines sport class in a functional classification system is the extent to which an athlete’s impairment impacts on sport performance. As a result, athletes with lower limb paralysis, due to spinal cord injury could compete together with double above knee amputees in wheelchair races. Despite both athletes having very different impairments, their impairment equally impacts their ability to propel their wheelchair.

Functional classification is sport specific because any given impairment may have a significant impact in one sport and a relatively minor impact in another. For example, the impact of a below elbow arm amputee in swimming is far greater than in running.

Event organisers favoured functional classification as it reduced the complexity of events. In 1989, the organisers of the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games – the International Co-ordination Committee of World Sports for the Disabled (ICC and a pre-cursor to the IPC) and the Organising Committee – signed an agreement which stipulated that all sports at the Games were to be conducted using sports specific functional classification systems. This decision greatly accelerated the transition to functional classification systems.

At the time of this decision, many sports had not begun to develop functional systems. Given the short timeframe and absence of relevant scientific evidence, the classification systems developed were based on expert opinion. Within each of the sports, senior Paralympic classifiers (including doctors, therapists, athletes and coaches) led the development of the new systems.

Paralympic classification today

Since the widespread adoption of functional systems of classification, para-sport has continued to mature rapidly. An athlete’s classification has a significant impact on the degree of success they are likely to achieve, and so, the concept of functional classification, based on performance, was questioned.

The Movement recognised the need to revisit classification, and in 2003 the IPC Governing Board approved a classification strategy which recommended the development of a universal classification code, giving direction for the future of classification.

The Paralympic Movement approved the IPC Classification Code in November 2007, which defines the objective of Paralympic classification as developing and implementing accurate, reliable and consistent sport focussed classification systems” known as evidence based, sport specific classification.

What is a sports class in Para sport?

A sport class groups athletes together for competition depending on how much their impairment impacts performance in their sport. A sport class is not necessarily comprised of one impairment type alone. It can be comprised of athletes with different impairments. However, these different impairments affect sport performance to a similar extent. For example, you will find athletes with paraplegia and double above-knee amputation competing in the same sport class in athletics. This is because their different impairments have a comparable effect on their 1,500m wheelchair racing performance.

In individual sports, athletes compete against athletes in their own sport class to ensure the impact of impairment is minimised. In national events and smaller international competitions athletes in different sport classes may compete together for one medal, because there are not enough athletes for each sport class to create a competitive event. When this happens, athletes in different sport classes may be given a ‘coefficient’ or correction score to account for the different levels of activity limitation.

Some Para sports only have only one sport class, such as Para powerlifting. To compete in these sports, the athletes only need to meet the minimum impairment criteria.

In team sports, the players are allocated points, which indicate their activity limitation. A lower score indicates a more severe activity limitation than a higher score. A team must not have more than a certain total of points on the field of play at the same time. This ensures equal competition with the opposing team.