The classification system for athletes has been used since the 1950s to ensure balance among the competitors of Paralympic sports. It divides the athletes of a given sport into classes, which ensures that an athlete or team competes under equal conditions against their adversaries.

Each sport has evaluation criteria and their own methodologies for forming classes, which are established by the modality's respective international federation. Should an athlete compete in more than one sport, he or she needs to be classified for each one. As some pathologies are progressive – such as some visual impairments – certain competitors need to be evaluated more than once over the course of their careers.

In all, there are ten types of impairments observed at the Paralympic Games: impaired muscle power, movement impairment, limb impairment, leg length difference, low stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, visual impairment and intellectual impairment.

There are sports that count with athletes with just one type of impairment – goalball, for example, is exclusively for those with visual impairments –, while others have classes that include competitors with more than one type of impairment, whether or not they are combined, such as athletics and swimming. 

Letters and Numbers

Individual sports - the classes are normally identified by letters and numbers. Normally, the lower the number, the lower the functional potential of the athletes in that class.

Team sports - each athlete in the team receives a score that accounts for their functional potential. Each team can only reach a certain total score, adding up the scores of each of the athletes involved.

Evaluations

The process of identifying an athlete’s classification is undertaken by a specialised committee comprising physicians, physiotherapists and professionals from the respective sporting area.  Three aspects are taken into account:

Physicians - examine the athlete's pathology

Functional - verifies the athletes potential taking into account the lesion/pathology

Technical - considers the impact that the limitations cause on the competitor's sporting performance