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Are you passionate about sports? What about those for people with disabilities? Please read more.
Prologue
Welcome to an unusual blog post about sports. In case you're wondering what Para sports are, this blog post will have you covered. You will learn about the Paralympic authority, the U.S. national governing body, classification, and the Games' little-known cheating problem.
Overall, this blog post combines two of the author's main passions: sports and disability.
The Global Paralympic Authority
What is the international governing body of the Paralympic Games? Three letters: IPC, which stand for the International Paralympic Committee. The official Olympic website mentions that the IPC is the world "governing body of sports for athletes with a disability." The IPC is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code, which is compulsory for being part of the Olympic Movement. The 2025 Olympic Charter stipulates that requirement in Rule 43. Now that you're familiar with the Paralympic sanctioning body, the next paragraph will provide a brief lecture on the lexicology of the word "Paralympic."
Next, let's go inside "Paralympic" as a word. According to Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ), the name "Paralympic" is a portmanteau of "the Greek preposition 'para' and ... 'Olympic.'" The Kiwi national Paralympic authority adds that the "para" portion means "beside or alongside." PNZ also writes that the "Paralympics are the parallel Games to the Olympics" and make it clear that both multi-sport festivals remain operational. Please refer to the "Introduction to Para Sports" section for a more detailed overview of Para sports.
In the section entitled "America's Governing Body," the reader will be introduced to the organization that governs the U.S. Paralympic delegation.
America's Governing Body
Every IPC member country or territory has a National Paralympic Committee (NPC). The 🇺🇸 United States of America (USA) is not an exception. While many other countries have separate organizations for national Olympic and Paralympic governance, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) handles both. The blog PGH Minor Sport, another work of GAM Productions (see "Disclaimer" section), has a post about U.S. unincorporated territories with their own Olympic teams. These dependencies also play international soccer separately from their parent country. In the Paralympics, athletes from 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico and the 🇻🇮 U.S. Virgin Islands represent those territories just like their Olympic counterparts.
In the next section, the reader will be familiarized with Para sports.
Introduction to Para Sports
For starters, let's get into the basics of Para sports. As of this writing, the IPC accredits 28 sports. If you watch the Paralympics, you will notice that many of the sports' gameplay is virtually identical to their counterparts for athletes without disabilities. Of course, the governing principles are amended to account for the various types of disabilities. For example, some Para athletes use support personnel such as "guides." According to the IPC, a guide performs duties such as "tapp[ing]" a visually impaired swimmer when their contestant approaches the wall. That way, the swimmer is notified that he or she must change direction. The next paragraph explains how the Paralympic Games are similar to their Olympic counterparts.
Believe it or not, the Paralympic Games actually have many similarities to the Olympics. The Paralympics are a multi-sport event in which athletes compete for medals. As with their Olympic counterparts, Paralympians represent their respective countries. The Paralympic Games also use the exact same medal system as the Olympics. The Paralympics have summer and winter versions, both of which currently use the same four-year cycles as the Olympics, and have the same host cities and facilities. However, the Olympics and Paralympics are different events.
In the next subsection, the reader will learn about a multi-sport event that includes competitions for Para athletes in addition to non-Para ones.
The World's Most Disability-Friendly Sporting Event
In case you're not aware, there is already a multi-sport event that includes both Para and non-Para contests. That sporting festival is the Commonwealth Games, which is sanctioned by Commonwealth Sport. The Games sanctioning body’s official name is the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF). The CGF’s members includes a number of political entities that are in the Commonwealth of Nations. Just like the IPC itself, the CGF is a World Anti-Doping Code signatory (see "The Global Paralympic Authority" section above). The list below enumerates several. Of course, the 🇺🇸 United States of America does not participate in the Games.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- Territories of the 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
The next subsection will cover one of the main differences between Para sports and those for athletes without disabilities: classification. As you're about to read, the main categories are not what you're probably thinking.
Athlete Classification 101
In the world of Para sports, classification plays a major role. The IPC's website mentions that, without classification, "the least impaired athlete" would "[win]" every single time. The IPC also writes that "[c]lassification" is important to the Paralympic Movement for multiple reasons. There is even a regulatory document for the classification of Para athletes. It is called the IPC Classification Code, and the 2015 edition included five supplementary sections with "International Standards." The most current version, published in 2025, only includes three. An IPC webpage writes that "[t]he Code is the fundamental document upon which Classification in the Paralympic Movement is based." There is a system for classifying athletes, and it includes what the IPC defines as "procedures for the assessment of athletes and the allocation of Sport Class and Sport Class Status." An IPC webpage also lists three basic "questions" that help determine whether the athlete is qualified for their sport. The same webpage also enumerates 10 groups of impairments that authorize an athlete to participate, which cannot be temporary. According to the USOPC, each sport has its own "[c]lassification system" that is laid down by its respective world governing body. The USOPC adds that these sanctioning bodies choose what its authorized "impairment types" are and "sever[ity]" thereof in accordance with IPC regulations. The next paragraph covers the subject of how classification works.
Paralympic classification is a highly complex operation. In a 2021 documentary for Australia's Dateline, "classification" is described as being analogous to "a complicated beast." In the same Australian documentary, a brief demonstration of the classification procedure is provided. A physical therapist mentions that a Para athlete will begin the process in a confidential area. The physical therapist also points out that this part will involve conversation with medical personnel on topics relating to the athlete's disability and participation in his/her sport. Furthermore, the aforementioned physical therapist reports that the athlete will also undergo a clinical assessment. The classification process also includes an observation of the athlete actually doing their sport. During the sport-related screening, the classification personnel will instruct an athlete to demonstrate their complete ability to do relevant tasks. According to the BBC, British Para swimmer Tully Kearney told her sport's world governing body that she was offended while being classified. She also told the British broadcaster that her classifiers were not performing their duties properly. In 2017, the BBC reported that British wheelchair racer Hannah Cockroft described the classification procedure as "humiliating." The Australian Dateline documentary also mentions that a classifier's "job" is not easy because "weight" and "age" are not the primary factors.
In the next subsection, you will learn that cheating during the classification process is able to be done.
Cheating in Classification
You might not realize it, but the Paralympics have a problem with cheating on athlete classification. In 2023, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australian ABC) documentary investigated how athletes are able to falsify their disabilities so they are more likely to capture a gold medal. Para swimmer Maddison Elliott mentions in the Australian ABC documentary that athletes with lower degrees of disability get classified for higher impairment levels and vice versa. The documentary adds that "competing against athletes with more significant impairments" is more beneficial than staying within their own disability class. That means Para athletes are encouraged to work below their ability level and mention that their degree of disability is higher than it really is. According to Elliott, there is virtually no difficulty with overstating an athlete's disability during an evaluation. Elliott adds that Para athletes often lie about their disabilities because they desire "to compete in a classification that they can win in." Now that you understand classification-related deception, the next paragraph will provide several examples of Paralympic cheating.
Next, let's talk about examples of Paralympic cheating. In fact, Wikipedia has an entire page devoted to Paralympic dishonesty. According to Sports Illustrated, American Para swimmer Jessica Long lost multiple events to competitors who, in her opinion, did not belong in them. The Australian ABC's Four Corners reported that, in 2015, the IPC looked into multiple swimmers who were thought to have intentionally underperformed "during classification." In the year 2000, the Spanish Paralympic basketball team won a gold medal using many players with fake intellectual disabilities. The squad was eventually required "to return their medals," according to the British Daily Mail. The Australian Dateline mentions that, as a consequence of the Spanish basketball scandal, "intellectual disabled sport[s]" were excluded from the Paralympics for 12 years. However, intellectual disability basketball remains off the Paralympic program altogether.
In my opinion, any athlete who willfully cheats on the classification process should have disciplinary action taken against them.
Epilogue
Over the course of this post, you learned about sports for athletes with disabilities. The post also introduced you to the Paralympic sanctioning body as well as what the event is. You also found out what authority governs the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic delegations. Furthermore, you found out how classification works in Para sports. There is also an integrity problem with the classification of Paralympic athletes. Obviously, the issue needs to stop going unnoticed by the worldwide Paralympic governing body.
Thank you for reading a blog post where sports and disability (two of the author’s biggest passions) come together.
Postscript
On April 13, 2025, this post was updated. It reflected the fact that new editions of both the Olympic Charter and the IPC Classification Code were published. In the section "The Global Paralympic Authority[,]" the locations of links relating to the World Anti-Doping Code were changed. Several other changes were made to the "Resources" section.
On September 02, 2025, this post was revised again. An extra paragraph was added to the "Introduction to Para Sports" section. The "Bibliography" section was also revised accordingly. Furthermore, multiple other alterations were made. A number of revisions were made after the initial publication of today’s edition.
Resources
- International Paralympic Committee (IPC)
- U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)
- United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC)
- World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
Disclaimer
The author and GAM Productions are presenting the information herein solely for informational purposes. This blog post does not serve as a substitute for consultation, advice, and/or treatment that involve a qualified healthcare professional. None of aforementioned parties shall not be held responsible for any injury or injuries that may affect the reader of this post. Neither GAM Productions or the owner thereof is considered a healthcare professional or provider.
Furthermore, GAM Productions is not a law firm. The organization's owner does not work in the legal profession. This blog post is not legal advice, so you need a licensed practitioner of law for this purpose.
GAM Productions is a fictional organization.
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