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Friday, 6 October, 2000, 16:31 GMT 17:31 UK
Making sense of the categories
BBC Sport Online's guide to the different disability categories at the Paralympics.
Athletes competing at Sydney from 18-29 October will do so within six disability categories.
Amputee Includes athletes who have at least one major joint in a limb missing, i.e. elbow, wrist, knee, ankle. Depending on the sport, some amputees compete as wheelchair athletes.
Cerebral palsy A disorder of movement and posture due to damage to an area, or areas, of the brain that control and coordinate muscle tone, reflexes, posture and movement. Cerebral means brain-centred; palsy is a lack of muscle control.
Intellectual disability A person with an intellectual disability must have substantial limitation in present functioning characterised by intellectual functioning (the American Association of Mental Retardation defines this as an IQ of 70 or below), limitations in two or more of the following adaptive skill areas: communication, self-care, home living, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure and work and have acquired their condition before age 18.
Les autres Les autres is French for 'the others'. It is a term used to describe athletes with a range of conditions which result in locomotive disorders - such as dwarfism - that don't fit into the traditional classification systems of the established disability groups.
Vision impaired Any condition which interferes with 'normal' vision. This incorporates the entire range of vision difficulties from correctable conditions through to total blindness.
Within the six disability categories the athletes still need to be divided according to their differing level of impairment.
The classification systems differ from sport to sport, in accordance with the different skills required to perform the sport.
Athletics is open to all disability groups and uses a functional classification system. A brief classification guide is as follows: prefixing F for field athletes or T for track athletes. F or T 11-13 are visually impaired, F or T 20 are learning difficulty, F or T 31-38 are cerebral palsy, F or T 41- 46 amputee and les autre, T 51- 54 wheelchair track athletes and F51- 58 wheelchair field athletes.
Cycling is open to amputee, les autre, cerebral palsy and visually impaired athletes who compete in individual road race and track events. Classification is split into divisions 2, 3 and 4 for athletes with cerebral palsy, athletes in division two being the most severely handicapped progressing to division 4 which includes physically more able athletes. Visually impaired athletes compete together with no separate classification system. They ride in tandem with a sighted guide. Amputee, Spinal Cord Injury and Les Autre competitors compete within the classification groupings LC1 - essentially for riders with upper limb disabilities, LC2 - essentially for riders with disabilities in one leg but who are able to pedal normally, LC3 - essentially for riders with a handicap in one lower limb who will usually pedal with one leg only, and LC4 for riders with disabilities affecting both legs.
Equestrian is open to all disability groups, with riders divided into four grades. Grade 1 incorporates severely disabled riders with Cerebral Palsy, Les Autres and Spinal Cord Injury. Grade 2 incorporates Cerebral Palsy, Les Autres, Spinal Cord injury and Amputee riders with reasonable balance and abdominal control. Grade 3 incorporates Cerebral Palsy, Les Autres, Amputee, Spinal Cord Injury and totally blind athletes with good balance, leg movement and co-ordination. Grade 4 incorporates Cerebral Palsy, Les Autres, Amputee, Spinal Cord injury and Visually Impaired. This last group comprises ambulant athletes with either impaired vision or impaired arm/leg function.
Goalball is open to visually impaired athletes who must wear "black out" masks to ensure all participants can compete equally, therefore eliminating the need for classification.
Classification is divided into three groups: S1 to S10 are those with physical impairment. S1 will have the most severe impairment and an S10 a lesser impairment, for example a hand amputation. S11 to S13 are those with a visual impairment. S11 will have little or no vision, S12 can recognise the shape of a hand and have some ability to see, S13 greater vision than the other two classes but less than 20 degrees of vision. S14 is for learning difficulty athletes.
Tennis is open to athletes with a mobility related disability which means that they cannot compete on equal terms with able bodied tennis players. The game is played from a wheelchair, with two classes, wheelchair and quadriplegic (disability in all four limbs).
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