Susannah Scaroni, right, and Jenna Fesemyer at the women’s 5000-metre race at the U.S. Paralympic Track Team Trials at the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar, Fla., July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Caleb Craig)
The Conversation: Paralympic classification isn’t just a way to organize sports – it also affects athletes’ experience
As written in The Conversation Canada by Janet Lawson, Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, University of Manitoba.
Athletes from around the world are in Paris for the 2024 Paralympic Games. The Games will feature more than 4,000 athletes with various disabilities competing in 549 medal events.
To ensure all athletes have a fair and equitable chance at achieving success at the Paralympics, organizers use a classification system that seeks to minimize the impact a person’s disability has on their performance.
Ideally, classification means that, rather than having to change the rules of the event for each competitor, the Games themselves account for the unique ways people with disabilities run, jump, throw and otherwise compete.
For more on this story, please visit The Conversation Canada.
Research at the University of Manitoba is partially supported by funding from the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.