|
Home
Contents
Governance
Organizations
Sports
Competitions
Classification
Coaching
Research
Issues
Laws
Links
Michigan
MSU
Webmaster
| |
Classification Systems
Classification refers to the way in which
athletes are grouped for competition. The
objective of classification is fair competition -
a "level playing field." Classification
occurs in most sports. For example, wrestlers are
classified by body weight. Young swimmers and
runners are classified by age. Many events are
classified by gender. Athletes with a disability
are classified by their ability/disability
characteristics.
Classification
Criteria
The classification systems used in
disability sport generally focus on one or more of these variables: (a) the
nature and severity of the athlete's disability; (b) the
athlete's functional ability to perform skills associated with
the sport; and/or (c) the athlete's performances in previous
competitions.
 | Disabilities.
In a disability-specific classification system,
classifications are based upon anatomical
differences in the human body. Diagnosis or
classification is typically conducted by someone with
medical education. Examples include the
measurement of vision loss to determine the
classification of athletes who are blind and
the measurement of residual limb length for athletes with
amputations. Disability-specific
classification tends to be more precise and
objective than other methods; however, the
anatomical difference that is being measured may
or may not have a significant impact on sports
performance. |
| Functional
skills. Functional classifications are based upon what
individuals can and cannot do in a particular
sport or in a group of sports that require
similar skills. For example, swimmers in
Paralympic competition are classified on the
basis of joint mobility, coordination, strength, and swimming
skills. Classification is typically conducted by
persons who are expert in the sport; however,
their judgments are often supplemented by
observations by persons who have extensive
knowledge of disabilities. |
| Sports
performances. Performance-based classification systems use
the athlete's previous best times or performance
data as the basis of classification. For example,
the Special Olympics program groups athletes
according to recent previous performances, with
not more than a 10% difference in the times or
performance levels of athletes in a particular
event. |
Some caveats ...
Disability-specific classification systems are sometimes called
medical systems because they usually are administered by
someone with a medical background and because they focus on
anatomical or physiological differences associated with specific
disabilities. Sport-specific systems are functional in
nature because they focus on ability to perform skills
associated with a sport. However, a classification system can be
functional without being sport-specific. For example, the CP-ISRA
system assesses the general coordination and function of
athletes with cerebral palsy, stroke, and head injury, but a
single classification status is used for all sports. Finally,
the disability-specific, sport-specific, and performance-based
systems are not mutually exclusive. In some sports and in
some organizations, classification procedures combine features
of more than one system.
Sport-Specific
(Functional) Classification Systems
Sport-specific classification
systems are described in the "Sports" section of this web site.
Choose "sports" from the menu at the left of this page, choose
either "summer sports" or "winter sports," click on the sport of
interest, and then scroll down to the "athlete eligibility and
classification" heading.
Disability-Specific (Medical) Classification
Systems
When a disability-specific classification system is used,
athletes compete against other athletes with the same disability.
Links to the most commonly-used disability-specific
systems are provided below:
Pros and Cons of Classification Systems
|
Performance-based systems
 |
Pros - Performance-based systems are
easy to administer, they don't require special training by classifiers,
and there is no requirement that athletes arrive early to the
competition to be classified. |
|
Cons - There is potential for athletes to cheat in some events
by "holding back" during early levels of competition so that they are in
a favorable position against less skilled competitors at major events
(most systems have some safeguards against this). Also performance-based
systems don't truly reward hard work and ability - the reward for
working harder and performing better is moving to a new class with
harder competition. |
|
|
Disability-specific (medical) systems
|
Pros - Some people believe that disability-specific systems
are more fair because athletes compete against other athletes with the
same disability. Because disability-specific systems typically rely upon
medical assessment, the process is sometimes more objective than
sport-specific classification systems. |
|
Cons - A major criticism of disability-specific systems is
that one classification method is unlikely to work equally well for all
sports (e.g., the IBSA vision testing scheme is likely to be effective
for vision-dependent sports such as shooting but may not be as effective
in a sport such as judo). The variables measured in a
disability-specific system may or may not have a significant impact on
sports performances. In addition, classifiers require special expertise
and training, and athletes must arrive early at the competition site to
be classified. Finally, the disability-specific systems tend to result
in too many classifications for a manageable competition. |
|
Dilemma
Disability-specific classification systems were used at the 1988
Paralympic Games in Seoul, Korea. There were 7 classes for
wheelchair users, 8 classes for athletes with cerebral palsy, 9
classes for athletes with amputations, 9 classes for les autres
athletes, and 3 classes for blind athletes - a total of 36
classifications. Thus, in a race such as the 50m dash in track, a
total of 72 races were scheduled, one for each class in each gender.
A similar escalation of the number of events occurred in other
sports.
The large number of races was a problem for athletes. Some
athletes competed in events that weren't very competitive because
there were so few athletes in each class. Some athletes waited for
hours to compete while athletes in other classifications had center
stage. More importantly, some athletes didn't get to compete when
their races were cancelled about a month before the Games because
their weren't enough competitors to satisfy an IPC rule that there
must be a minimum of 6 athletes from 2 nations to conduct an event.
Imagine yourself in a position of having your event cancelled after
months or years of training and after having raised thousands of
dollars from sponsors to support your travel to Korea.
Officials weren't happy about the number of events either - it
was a logistical nightmare to conduct a quality Games with so many
events.
The solution? The IPC demanded that each of its sports committees
develop a sport-specific classification system that significantly
decreased the number of classes, and that the new system be
implemented in time for the 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games. |
|
Sport-specific (functional) systems
|
Pros -Some people believe that sport-specific systems are more
fair because actual sports skills or ability to perform sports skills
represent the basis of classification. Many people believe that different
classification systems are needed for different sports (e.g., arm-dependent
events in field may require different classifications than leg-dependent
events in track). Also, the sport-specific systems tend to result in fewer
classes. |
|
Cons - Most sport-specific systems include athletes from a
variety of disability populations (e.g., the swimming classification
system has been developed to accommodate swimmers with physical,
vision, cognitive, and hearing disabilities). It is difficult to
classify athletes with such varying abilities. Although classification
is supposed to be based on the athlete's abilities rather than
training variables, athletes are concerned about the possibility that
training harder and getting better coaching might result in a higher
classification. Also, classifiers need special expertise and training. |
|
Page prepared by Gail Dummer |
|
