Athletics (sport) - Athletes With A Disability

Athletes With A Disability

Athletes with a physical disability have competed at separate international events since 1952. It is governed by IPC Athletics, and is one of the sports at the Summer Paralympic Games since 1960.

Competiors at elite level competitions, are classified by disability, to arrange athletes with a similar disability in the same event. A classified T12 athlete for example, is a track athlete with a visual impairment.

• F = Field athletes
• T = Track athletes

• 11–13 – Visual impairment. Compete with a sighted guide.
• 20 – Intellectual disability
• 31–38 – Cerebral palsy
• 41–46 – Amputation, and others (including athletes with dwarfism)
• 51–58 – Wheelchair

In wheelchair racing athletes compete in lightweight racing chairs. Most major marathons have wheelchair divisions and the elite racers consistently beat the runners on foot.

Occasionally, athletes with a disability excel to compete with able bodied athletes. Legally blind Marla Runyan ran in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and won a gold medal in the 1500 metres at the 1999 Pan American Games. Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee, has achieved the "A" qualifying standard, allowing him to compete in the 2012 Olympics. At the 2011 World Championships Pistorius successfully made it to the 400 metres semi-final round and won a silver medal as part of South Africa's 4x400 metres relay team. In Masters athletics it is far more common to make an accommodation for athletes with a disability. Blind Ivy Granstrom set numerous Masters world records while being guided around the track.