Para-athletics is the sport of athletics practiced by people with a disability as a parasport. The athletics events within the parasport are mostly the same as those available to able-bodied people, with two major exceptions in wheelchair racing and the club throw, which are specific to the division. Certain able-bodied events are rarely contested as para-athletic events outside deaf sport; pole vault, triple jump, hammer (of which the club throw is sometimes considered the para-athletic equivalent) and the three hurdling events. The sport is known by various names, including disability athletics, disabled track and field and Paralympic athletics. Top-level competitors may be called elite athletes with disability.[1]
Governance
Competitors are typically organised into three broad categories: deaf sports, athletes with a physical disability, and athletes with an intellectual disability. Deaf athletes typically compete among themselves at events such as the Deaflympics, or in able-bodied events (such as British hammer thrower Charlotte Payne) while athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities are usually assessed and given a para-athletics classification, which groups together athletes with similar ability levels. These classifications are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and comprise a single letter and a number: T for Track or F for Field, then a number defining the level of ability. In competition, events may take place between athletes of identical class if numbers are sufficient, otherwise a range of similar classes may compete in the same event.[2] The Raza point score system can be used in field events to allow athletes of different abilities to directly compete.
The name of the sport is ultimately derived from the Paralympic movement, the Paralympic Games and the name of the international Paralympic Committee. 'Paralympic' was originally a portmanteau of Olympic and paraplegic, reflecting the roots of the movement among spinal injury patients at Stoke Mandeville Hospital under Sir Ludwig Guttmann, but as the Paralympic Games gained popularity and prestige, and importantly, expanded to other non-spinal classes such as cerebral palsy, vision impairment and running with prosthetics, the reasoning behind the para part of the name was changed to emphasise that the Games and the Movement were parallel (and thus equal) to the Olympics.
As a result 'para-' came to be recognised as a standard prefix to denote all disability sports, and as organisations were formed by the International Paralympic Committee to organise and regulate the different disability sports, a practice emerged, particularly in sports with multiple disability classifications, of describing the sports with the prefix para-, including in the names of the organisations formed by the IPC to run them e.g. World Para-Swimming, or the UCI-recognised discipline of para-cycling. The IPC Athletics Committee thus changed its name to World Para-Athletics, with Para-athletics itself a portmanteau of para and athletics. The main stand-alone championships of the sport are now referred to as the World Para-Athletics Championships - itself mirroring the change in the able-bodied events when the IAAF change its branding to World Athletics.
Timothée Adolphe and his sighted guide Cédric Felip
Competitors at elite level competitions are classified by disability, to arrange athletes with a similar disability in the same event. A classified T12 athlete for example, is a track athlete with a visual impairment.
In wheelchair racing, athletes compete in lightweight racing chairs. Most major marathons have wheelchair divisions and the elite racers consistently beat the runners on foot.
Events
Paralympic athletes compete in the following events. Note that not all events may feature at a particular tournament, and not all events may be open to all classifications:
In 2017 rename from IPC Athletics Grand Prix to World Para Athletics Grand Prix. Its purpose is the development of this sport as well as the classification and obtaining the Paralympic quota. An annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising six to nine of the best athletics meetings.[12]
