Eligibility Information
Classification is a structure for competition and is one of biggest differences between the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Paralympic athletes have an impairment in body structures and functions that lead to a competitive disadvantage in sport. Consequently, criteria is put in place to ensure that winning is determined by skill, fitness, power, endurance, tactical ability and mental focus, the same factors that account for success in sport for athletes who are able-bodied. Classification is the process by which athletes are assessed to determine the impact their impairment has on their ability to compete in a specific sport.
The Paralympic Movement offers sport opportunities for athletes that have an impairment that belongs to one of the seven eligible impairment types identified in Chapter 2, section 8.1 of the IPC Classification Code Handbook. Those eligible impairments are described below:
Coordination Impairments
Athletes with a Coordination Impairment have one or more of the following three movement disorders that adversely affects the ability to voluntarily produce a full range of skilled movement fluidly, rapidly, and accurately:
- Hypertonia/Spasticity: an increase in muscle tension that may be velocity-dependent and/or a reduced ability of a muscle to stretch.
- Motor Ataxia: limited precision in direction and velocity of voluntary movement.
- Dyskinesia (Athetosis, Dystonia, Chorea): involuntary movements that interfere with voluntary movements.
Examples of Underlying Health Conditions that can lead to coordination impairments include Cerebral Palsy, Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke, and Multiple Sclerosis.
Impaired Muscle Power
Athletes with Impaired Muscle Power have a reduced (or no) ability to contract their muscles to generate force that is consistent with an Underlying Health Condition affecting the structure and function of the central or peripheral nervous system or the muscles.
Examples of Underlying Health Conditions leading to impaired muscle power include: spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy, post-polio syndrome, and spina bifida.
Impaired Passive Range of Motion
Athletes with Impaired Passive Range of Movement have a reduced ability for a joint to be passively moved that is consistent with an Underlying Health Condition affecting a structure of bones, joints, connective tissue, or soft tissues.
Examples of Underlying Health Conditions leading to impaired passive range of motion include: arthrogryposis and contracture resulting from chronic joint immobilization or trauma affecting a joint.
Limb Deficiency and/or Limb Length Difference
Athletes with Limb Deficiency or Limb Length Difference have a total or partial absence of a limb or anatomically irregular limb dimensions that are consistent with an Underlying Health Condition resulting from trauma (traumatic amputation), illness (example: amputation due to bone cancer), or congenital causes affecting the bones and/or joints (example: dysmelia).
This impairment group can be further divided into the following sub-categories:
- Limb deficiency
- Leg length difference and/or
- Arm length difference
Short Stature
Athletes with Short Stature have reduced total body length (including head, trunk, and legs) as a results of congenitally or developmentally reduced length of the bones of the upper and lower limbs (and may also have reduced trunk length).
Athletes will not be considered to have Short Stature if their reduced total body length is the result of Limb Deficiency or Limb Length Difference only.
Examples of an underlying health condition that can lead to Short Stature include achondroplasia, growth hormone dysfunction, and osteogenesis imperfecta.
Vision Impairment
Athletes with Vision Impairment have an Underlying Health Condition affecting the structure or function of the eye, optic nerve, optic chiasm, post chiasma visual pathways, or visual cortex of the brain resulting in reduced or no visual function even when using the best possible refractive or optical correction.
Examples of Underlying Health Conditions leading to vision impairments include retinitis pigmentosa and diabetic re
Intellectual Impairment
Athletes with an Intellectual Impairment have an Underlying Health Condition causing restriction in general mental functions required to understand and constructively integrate the various mental functions including all cognitive functions and their development over the life span. This impairment must be present before the age of 18.
For more information on Intellectual Impairments, please visit http://www.athleteswithoutlimits.org/eligibility