The 17th edition of the Paralympic Games which, like the recently concluded Olympics, will be held in Paris with competitions from August 28th to September 8th. For every sport There is no single tournament as it happens for the Olympics, but each Paralympic discipline is divided into categories which see athletes competing who are considered to have similar functional abilities in terms of movement, coordination and balance, thus making the competitions as fair as possible.
Everything is fine athlete So, before taking part in a Paralympic competition, it is evaluated by the Paralympic Committeeassessed as suitable or not to participate in the games depending on his disability and assigned to a specific sports class – which varies from sport to sport – based on its physical capabilities.
The division into Paralympic categories allows for fair competition
The Paralympics, called this way because they were born as a competition parallel to the Olympicssaw the light in 1960 during the Rome Olympics from an idea of German neurologist Ludwig Guttmannwhich had already begun organizing a sports competition in 1948 involving some World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries.
The values underlying the Paralympics are determination, courage, inspiration And equalityIt is precisely from this last concept – equality – that the need arises break down social barriers of discrimination for people with disabilities and to show that disability, in its different degrees, does not prevent great achievements such as those we can see at the Olympics.
As just mentioned, however, not all disabilities are the same from a sporting point of view, a competition based solely on the definition of disability would threaten the fairness of competitions.
For this reason, it is of fundamental importance that Paralympic classification for disabled sports, which determines which athletes are suitable to compete in a certain sport and at which category must be awarded for the competition.
Therefore, before taking part in the Paralympics, each athlete goes through a process called “Athlete Evaluation”, in which it is decreed:
- if the athlete has a eligible disability for his sport of belonging;
- if the athlete’s eligible disability meets the minimum disability criteria of this sport;
- to which one sports class The athlete should be assigned based on their ability to perform the specific tasks of the specific sport.
Let’s look at these three criteria in detail.
Eligibility and classification criteria for athletes with disabilities
When evaluating a specific sport, it should be considered that all athletes with disabilities are considered eligible to compete, this is because not all disabilities substantially affect the performance of that specific sport. Each impairment, for example, affects differently depending on the sport and consequently possessing it for an athlete to be able to compete in Paralympic sport.
Disabilities suitable for Paralympic sport
I am 10 the eligible impairments in Paralympic sport, which can be grouped into three groups main: physical impairments, visuals And intellectual. Not all sports allow athletes from all three groups to participate (such as athletics or swimming), while others allow specific groups to participate (such as para-cycling or equestrian para-dressage).
a) physical impairments
This type of disability includes:
- compromised muscle power such as spinal cord injuries;
- compromised range of motiondue for example to chronic immobilization of a joint;
- limb deficiencywhether it is a congenital deficit or due to disease/trauma
- leg length difference;
- short staturedue to reduced length of the bones;
- hypertoniawhich concerns those subjects who have a reduced ability to stretch the muscle and damage to the central nervous system;
- ataxiain case of uncoordinated movements due to brain injury or multiple sclerosis;
- athetosiswhen the subject has slow and continuous involuntary movements, typical of paralysis or brain lesions.
b) visual impairment
These are all those athletes who have a reduced or absent vision due to damage to the structure of the eye, the optic nerves, or the visual cortex of the brain.
c) intellectual impairment
Athletes with intellectual disability have a restriction in intellectual functioning and, if the Paralympic sport provides for the participation of this group in its competitions, the impairment must be possessed by the athlete before the age of 18.
The minimum criteria for disability
The classification rules of dal Paralympic Spell establish how serious a suitable impairment in order for an athlete to be considered fit for competition. This is because, precisely, some disabilities slight ones could be “irrelevant” or not sufficiently disabling for the performance of a specific sport. To give a simplified example, an athlete who does not have a hand is disabled and this is disabling when performing, for example, swimming, while it may not be relevant – at a sporting level – when performing another sport.
Clearly such a one assessment And uniquely sporty, and is not intended to belittle any individual’s disability in any way.
Paralympic sports classes
Once an athlete has been assessed as fit to perform in any Paralympic discipline, it must be established in which specific category will participate.
Every Paralympic sport it is in fact divided into categories aimed at making subjects compete with each other similar functional capabilities as for coordination, movement and balance.
For each sport there is a different type of classification characterized by a letter, corresponding to the sport, and a number corresponding to the grade: usually the lower the value, the greater the disability.
On the Official Paralympic Page can be found the division into categories of all the sports that will participate in the Paralympics. Taking as an example that of I swim, the division occurs first of all on the style, Meaning what:
- S: butterfly, backstroke and freestyle, that is, those styles that require power in the upper limbs;
- SB: frog;
- SM: mixed.
The categories are then further divided according to the impairment and of the grade:
- S1-S10: physical disability; the higher the number, the less serious the limitation on playing sports.
We must consider that athletes who have very different disabilities – such as the lack of upper and lower limbs – can compete with each other because sports classes are assigned based on the impact that such a disability has on swimming, and not on the disability itself. - S11-S13: vision problems; also in this case, we go from class 11 where blindness is almost total, to 13 where the visual deficit is less serious.
- S14: intellectual disability.
