Athletics is a sport open to all physical, vision and intellectual impairment classifications. There is no denying its success, as evidenced through the sheer number of events at each Paralympic Games. Take the 100m as an example: the Olympic Games has two finals (one each for men and women), whereas the most recent Paralympic Games at Tokyo 2020 had 29 (16 for men and 13 for women).
Wheelchair athletics emerged in 1952, when athletes with spinal cord injuries took part in a javelin event at the Stoke Mandeville Games. Athletics was one of the first sports – out of a total of eight – to be added to the inaugural Paralympic programme at the Rome 1960 Games. It spans a wide range of track events (excluding obstacle races and walking events), jumping events (excluding the pole vault), throwing events (excluding the hammer throw) and, of course, the blue-ribbon road event: the marathon (since 1984).
Brief overview of the rules
Depending on their impairment classification, athletes can compete using a wheelchair (with three wheels), prostheses or a throwing seat. Depending on their level of impairment, vision impaired athletes can be accompanied by a guide runner for races or guided by a coach for throwing and jumping events. However, not all impairment classifications are eligible to compete in all the events.
Eligible impairments
All types of impairment.
Paraplegia, quadriplegia and equivalent, amputation and equivalent, vision impairments and blindness, cerebral palsy, intellectual impairments, short stature.
Classification
Letter: T (= Track & Jump) or F (= Field)
Number: First component (tens): 1 = vision impairment / 2 = intellectual impairment / 3 = co-ordination impairments (standing or seated) / 4 = short stature, amputation or limb deficiency / 5 = wheelchair (race or throw) / 6 = lower limb competing with prosthesis.
Second component (units): Severity of the impairment, 1 being the greatest impairment and 8 the mildest.
