Understanding Paralympic athletics classification
Phase two of the Olympics has begun. On day one of the track events, running fans need to get familiar with the athlete classifications.
This week in Rio, the Paralympics have officially kicked off. While the opening of this phase went ahead yesterday, today marks the first day of the action on the track. For this next portion of the Olympic Games though, there are a series of codes which refer to the classification an athlete falls into. For athletes involved in racing in the athletics portion of the Games, they fall into the “T” category, which stands for track. The number that follows refers to their disability. Understanding the classifications is simple. In order for track fans to understand the races better, we’ve included all of the categories below.
11-13: Visual impairment
20: Intellectual impairment
31-38: Coordination impairments
31-34: Requires use of wheelchair for coordination impairments
40-41: Short stature
42-44: Lower limb deficiency, impaired muscle function or range of movement
45-47: Upper limb deficiency, impaired muscle function or range of movement
51-57: Limb deficiencies requiring use of wheelchair
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