How to Become a Paralympic Athlete

A career as a Paralympian athlete is an exciting, resilient, and impressive development. Be it you aspire to partake in Paralympic Games such as swimming or athletics, here is the guide on how to become a Paralympic athlete that will take you through the processes of transforming that dream into a reality.

What You Need to Know about Paralympic Disability Classification

It is important to be conversant with the Paralympic disability categories before one competes. This system guarantees fair opportunities in competing activities among the athletes based on the effect of the impairment on sport performance. Classification standards between each sport vary, but there is a roughly equivalent principle of dividing athletes on the line of function rather than only diagnosis.

What Do the Paralympics Steps of Classification entail?

Three steps should be undertaken to become a certified one officially:

1. Medical Assessment: Your medical papers are evaluated by a certified classifier.
2. Technical Assessment: You undertake sport specific tasks with assessors monitoring.
3. Competition Observation: In other sports, you might be observed during the competitions to ensure the classification.

This process allows you to be in the right class in which competition is on merit and functional.

Which are the 6 Disability Groups in Paralympics?

There are six large groups of disability among the athletes:

1. Diseased muscle power (e.g. spinal cord injury)
2. Restricted passive range of movement
3. The absence of limbs (e.g. amputation)
4. Difference in leg length
5. Short stature
   6. Hypertonia, ataxia or athetosis (i.e. cerebral palsy)

These categories are used to elaborate on the entitlement of all sporting activities.

A step-by-step in attaining a Paralympic athlete.

Step 1: Pick a Sport

Begin with one or a few of the sports that are held in the Paralympics as athletics, swimming, wheelchair basketball or goalball. Choose one that you will be interested in, good at and have a passion.

Anecdote: Sarah was the victim of an accident because of which she lost her leg, and she started to participate in swimming as the therapeutical practice. She has since become infatuated with it and now she is an international Paralympic swimmer.

Step 2: Be an Early Classification

Begin the classification procedure at the earliest so that you can find out whether you are eligible or not and which sport category you belong to. This assists coaches to custom train and gives access to authorized events.

Step 3 / Train With a Club / Coach

Join an adaptive sports club in your neighborhood or get a qualified coach

. They will acquaint you with technique, fitness and comp preparations.

Step 4: Compete at a Local and National Level

Start at local or regional competitions. Advance to national competition whereby you get experience and confidence.

Step 5: Satisfy Qualification Requisites

To be eligible to participate in competition such as Paralympics Games, an individual should meet the rigorous qualification terms of the Paralympics Athletics or swimming determination guidelines depending on the sport.

Step 6: Get into National Paralympic Program

Provided you are good at national tournaments, you could get invited to the Paralympic training program in your country. These are in form of availability of advanced coaching, nutrition, equipment, and funding opportunities.

Step 7: Go International

The sport-people targeting the Paralympic Games need to obtain international experience. Compete in World Para Championships, and International qualifiers and IPC-licensed matches.

Paralympics Age Limit-Does It Exist?

No age limit applies in all sports but any federation can stipulate theirs. As an example, there are sport activities that demand players to be 14 or older. Some enter at a young age, whereas other people do it in their 20s or 30s.

Anecdote: David a paralyzed guy at the age of 35, played and competed in wheelchair tennis in the Paralympics at the age of 40.

Swimming Paralympic Disability classifications

The Paralympic swimming, is divided into three classification categories labeled S1-S10, (physical), S11-S13, (visual), and S14, (intellectual). The impairment is worse as the number is lower.

The swimmers participate in both water and land tests and will be in a group according to their stroke technique, mobility, ability to coordinate, and strength of muscles.

To make it to the Paralympic Athletics

In order to be eligible in Paralympic Athletics (track and field), the athlete has to:

• Be formally categorized
• Meet minimum qualifying standards (MQS)
• Enter international qualifier/ ranking events

There is also the importance of not just being inactive on national rankings and also not being active throughout the year.

What Is Important About the Paralympic Games It is not just a sports event:

Paralympics Games represent the manifestations of power and break the stereotypes as well: because it is the territory where athletes with disabilities demonstrate their best performances

. They take place once in every four years immediately after the Olympic Games.

Their observation can be transformational to your journey and you can learn much about how to achieve greatness out of their journey.

An example: Following the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Emma felt so inspired that she joined a wheelchair basketball club in one of the numbers of the club the following month.

Final Thoughts

It is not an easy task to become a Paralympic athlete, yet the profit is beyond measure. It is possible to become one of the star athletes in the world with the right classification system, in the appropriate choice of sport, and in the strategy.