Disability sport classification

There are a number of sports open to people who fit into Les Autres classes, though their eligibility often depends on if they have short stature or PROM.

This system was published in the Handbook of Rules, which was distributed to people involved with paraplegic sport at the time including coaches, doctors and physiotherapists in various countries.

[7] During the 1970s, a debate began to take place in the physical disability sport community about the merits of a medical versus functional classification system.

[12][13] The competition demonstrated that ISMGF medical classifiers had issues with correctly placing players into classes that best represented their ability.

This conflict would not officially resolve itself until 1986, when the United States men and women threatened to boycott major tournaments unless the functional system was fully implemented.

[20] The classification was based upon the system designed for field athletics events but used in a wider variety of sports including archery and boccia.

[24] During the 1980s, there was a move away from a medical classification system to a functional one, with ISMWSF being one of the organizations driving this change on the wheelchair sport side.

[32] In 1992, ahead of the Barcelona hosted Paralympics, the amputee sport classification system again was changed with the total number of classes reduced to the nine that currently exist today.

[27] Partially because of issues in objectively identifying functionality that plagued the post Barcelona Games, the IPC unveiled plans to develop a new classification system in 2003.

[39] This classification system went into effect in 2007, with standards based around identifying impaired strength, limb deficiency, leg length differences, and stature.

[25] Among the sports where ISFs are in charge of classification for some disability types are athletics, alpine skiing, wheelchair rugby and lawn bowls.

Physical disabilities is often broken down into several subcategories including spinal injuries, cerebral palsy, amputations and Les Autres.

[94] Testing has shown that people with intellectual disabilities often have less strength, endurance, agility, flexibility, balance and slower running speeds than the non-disabled.

These sports including pole vaulting, platform diving, boxing, ski jumping, American football, rugby, wrestling, karate, javelin, discus, hammer throw, and trampolining.

[107] Sports supported by the Special Olympics including track and field, soccer, basketball, ten-pin bowling, and aquatics.

[106] The purpose of Les Autres sport classification is to allow for fair competition between people of different disability types.

[119] There are a number of sports open to people who fit into Les Autres classes, though their eligibility often depends on if they have short stature or PROM.

For people with short stature, these sports include equestrian, powerlifting, swimming, table tennis and track and field.

[130] Some sports have open classification, with all Les Autres and short stature classes able to participate so long as they meet the minimal definition of having a disability.

The rules were later changed to be inclusive of anyone, including Les Autres players, who meet the minimum disability requirement.

[123][131] In Nordic and alpine skiing, Les Autres competitors participate in different classes depending on their type of disability and what is effected.

On the Paralympic level, this also extends to people with disabilities related to tactile sensation, impaired thermoregulatory and cardiac function.

This classification system tends to use a number of measures to classify sportspeople including muscle strength, range of joint movement (ROM), co-ordination, amputation, body height and balance.

[144] One of the standard means of assessing functional classification is the bench test, which is used in swimming, lawn bowls and wheelchair fencing.

[88] One of the standard means of assessing functional classification is the bench test, which is used in swimming, lawn bowls and wheelchair fencing.

The sixth test measures the trunk extension involving the lumbar and dorsal muscles while leaning forward at a 45-degree angle.

The first step is to contact INAS in coordination with the national sports federation to determine if the person meets minimum eligibility requirements.

[100][101][108] Sportspeople can either be directed to provide more evidence of an intellectual disability, rejected outright by INAS or referred to sport specific classifiers.

[114] In table tennis, players are asked to demonstrate several types of serves as part of sport specific testing.