Wheelchair sport classification

Wheelchair sport classification is a system designed to allow fair competition between people of different disabilities, and minimize the impact of a person's specific disability on the outcome of a competition. Wheelchair sports is associated with spinal cord injuries, and includes a number of different types of disabilities including paraplegia, quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy, post-polio syndrome and spina bifida. The disability must meet minimal body function impairment requirements. Wheelchair sport and sport for people with spinal cord injuries is often based on the location of lesions on the spinal cord and their association with physical disability and functionality.

Classification for spinal cord injuries and wheelchair sport is overseen by International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS). Classification for spinal cord injuries internationally is also handled on a sport specific basis, with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) being the classifier for a number of sports including alpine skiing, biathlon, cross country skiing, ice sledge hockey, powerlifting, shooting, swimming, and wheelchair dance. Classification is also handled nationally by national wheelchair sport organizations, or sport specific organizations.

Wheelchair sport classification was first experimented with by Ludwig Guttmann at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital during the 1940s, and was formalized in the 1950s. This was a medical based classification system. It was the used International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation (ISMWSF) at their founding in 1960, when the first International Stoke Mandeville Games were held in Rome. The 1960s, 1970s and 1980s would see a debate about the merits of the medical based system. Changes towards a functional classification system started in some sports in the late 1970s and 1980s before going wider in the early 1990s. Major changes took place in the 1990s, which facilitated the ability for people with spinal cord injuries to compete with people with different types of disabilities. These trends continued into the 2000s.

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