A3 (classification)
Sports people in this class are eligible to participate in include athletics, swimming, sitting volleyball, archery, weightlifting, badminton, lawn bowls, sitzball and wheelchair basketball.
The nature of a person's amputations in this class can effect their physiology and sports performance.
[1][10][11] Because of the potential for balance issues related to having an amputation, during weight training, amputees are encouraged to use a spotter when lifting more than 15 pounds (6.8 kg).
[1] Lower limb amputations effect a person's energy cost for being mobile.
To keep their oxygen consumption rate similar to people without lower limb amputations, they need to walk slower.
[11] People in this class use around 41% more oxygen to walk or run the same distance as someone without a lower limb amputation.
In some cases, prolong heel contact or knees remaining fulling extended is a problem with training in how to use the prosthesis.
[1][12] IWAS was created following the merger of ISOD and International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF) in 2005.
[1] In the late 2000s, research suggested that in athletics running events, double below the knee amputees could have a competitive advantage when running against their able-bodied counterparts because their prostheses provide a competitive advantage.
The combined class was then called T44 and included both single and double below the knee amputees.
[14][21] Use of a specially made carbon fibre running prosthetic leg assists runners in this class in lowering their heart rate compared to using a prosthetic not designed for running.
[18] Runnings at this class can have lower metabolic costs compared to elite runners over middle and long distances.
People with amputations longer than 2/3rds the length of their thigh are generally 4.5 point players.
[22] Despite wheelchair basketball having been around since the first Paralympic Games, amputee players from this class were first allowed to be classified and participate internationally in 1983 following the creation of a functional classification system in Cologne, Germany by Horst Strokhkendl.
[19] Other sports people in this class are eligible to compete in include sitting volleyball, archery, and weightlifting .
[2][19] In the case of weightlifting, amputees have also traditionally been grouped together, with divisions being based on weight instead.
[29] Another sport open to people in this class is sitzball, the precursor to sitting volleyball.
In 1991, the first internationally accepted adaptive rowing classification system was established and put into use.
[2][10] The classification system takes several things into account when putting people into this class.
[33] Sometimes the health examination may not be done on site because the nature of the amputation could cause not physically visible alterations to the body.
