Eligible Impairment Types
The para cycling classification system determines which athletes are eligible to compete and how they are grouped for competition. Athletes are classified according to the degree of activity limitation resulting from their impairment.
The purpose of classification is to minimise the impact of impairment on the outcome of competition. This ensures that success in para cycling is determined by an athlete’s skills, physical fitness, talent, and training — not by the nature of their disability.
In para cycling, there are eight eligible impairment types. An athlete must have at least one of these impairment types, which must be permanent and the direct result of an underlying health condition (for example: trauma, disease, or dysgenesis).
Eligible Impairment Type | Examples of an Underlying Health Condition that can lead to the Eligible Impairment |
|---|---|
Impaired Muscle Power A Health Condition that either reduces or eliminates their ability to voluntarily contract their muscles in order to move or to generate force. | Includes spinal cord injury (complete or incomplete, tetra-or paraplegia or paraparesis), muscular dystrophy, post-polio syndrome and spina bifida. |
Impaired Passive Range of Movement A restriction or a lack of passive movement in one or more joints. | Includes arthrogryposis and contracture resulting from chronic joint immobilisation or trauma affecting a joint. |
Limb Deficiency/Limb length difference A total or partial absence a limb or | Traumatic amputation, amputation due to bone |
Leg Length Difference A difference in the length of the athlete’s legs. | Includes disturbance of limb growth or as result of trauma. |
Hypertonia/Spasticity An increase in muscle tension and a reduced ability of a muscle to stretch caused by damage to the central nervous system. | Includes cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury and stroke. |
Ataxia Limited precision in direction and velocity of voluntary movement, consistent with an Underlying Health Condition affecting the structure and function of the central nervous system. | Includes cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke and multiple sclerosis. |
Athetosis Continual slow involuntary movements. | Includes cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury and stroke. |
Vision Impairment An Underlying Health Condition affecting the structure or function of the eye, optic nerve, optic chiasm, post chiasma visual pathways, or visual cortex of the brain resulting in reduced or no visual function even when using the best possible refractive or optical | Includes retinitis pigmentosa and diabetic retinopathy. |