A4 (classification)

Sports people in this class are eligible to participate in include athletics, swimming, sitting volleyball, archery, weightlifting, wheelchair basketball, amputee basketball, amputee football, lawn bowls, and sitzball.

[2] In competing in other sports, this class may have a different name: Amputee football: Field player.

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 7% 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] 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.

[16] Inside the class, shank length does not impact the distance that male long jumpers can jump.

The combined class was then called T44 and included both single and double below the knee amputees.

People with amputations longer than 2/3rds the length of their thigh are generally 4.5 point players.

[5] 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.

Players in this class cannot use their residual stumps to kick the ball as it would give them an unfair advantage.

[9] People with amputations are eligible to compete in swimming at the Paralympic Games.

The balance issues associated with this can make it more challenging to use a traditional starting position to enter the water.

[2][17] In the case of weightlifting, amputees have also traditionally been grouped together, with divisions being based on weight instead.

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.

[30] 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.

[32] For wheelchair basketball, part of the classification process involves observing a player during practice or training.