Knowledge Base

Use the categories below to find key information related to Para sport.

Eligible Impairments

There are currently seven Eligible Impairments within the Paralympic Movement. These can be divided into three distinct groups of PI (Physical Impairment), VI (Vision Impairment), and II (Intellectual Impairment). 

Impaired Muscle Power

  • A standing white man with dark hair wearing black sports underwear who has noticeably smaller muscles in his left arm and leg.

    Athletes with Impaired Muscle Power have a Health Condition that either reduces or eliminates their ability to voluntarily contract their muscles in order to move or to generate force.

    Examples of an Underlying Health Condition that may lead to Impaired Muscle Power include spinal cord injury (complete or incomplete, tetra-or paraplegia or paraparesis), muscular dystrophy, post-polio syndrome and spina bifida.

    Source: 2025 IPC Classification Code

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  • A white female with dark hair sitting in a powered wheelchair wearing black sports underwear who has some visibly impaired joints in her limbs and uses a trunk support.

    Athletes with Impaired Passive Range of Movement have a restriction or a lack of passive movement in one or more joints.

    Examples of an Underlying Health Condition that may lead to Impaired Passive Range of Movement include arthrogryposis and contracture resulting from chronic joint immobilisation or trauma affecting a joint.

    Source: 2025 IPC Classification Code

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  • A black female with dark hair sitting in a wheelchair wearing black sports underwear who has an above-knee amputation of both lower limbs. She also has above-elbow limb deficiency of the right arm.

    Athletes with Limb Deficiency or Limb Length Difference have a total or partial absence of a limb or anatomically irregular limb dimensions that are consistent with an Underlying Health Condition resulting from trauma, illness, or congenital causes affecting the bones and/or joints.

    Source: 2025 IPC Classification Code

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  • A black female with dark hair who has short stature standing in dark coloured sportswear.

    Athletes with Short Stature have a reduced length in the bones of the upper limbs, lower limbs and/or trunk.

    Examples of an Underlying Health Condition that may lead to Short Stature include achondroplasia, growth hormone dysfunction, and osteogenesis imperfecta.

    Source: 2025 IPC Classification Code

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Athletes with a Coordination Impairment have one or more of the following three movement disorders that:

  1. adversely affects the ability to voluntarily produce a full range of skilled movement fluidly, rapidly, and accurately; and
  2. is consistent with an Underlying Health Condition affecting the structure and function of the central nervous system.
  • A standing white woman with blonde hair wearing black sports underwear who has increased muscle tension in her left arm and right hand.
    Hypertonia / Spasticity

    An increase in muscle tension that may be velocity-dependent and/or a reduced ability of a muscle to stretch.

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  • A black female with dark hair who has short stature standing in dark coloured sportswear with an icon next to her head indicating a Vision Impairment.

    Athletes with Vision Impairment have 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 correction.

    Source: 2025 IPC Classification Code

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  • A white male with blonde hair standing in dark coloured sportswear with an icon next to his head indicating an intellectual impairment.

    Athletes with an Intellectual Impairment have a restriction in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour in which affects conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills required for everyday life. This Impairment must be present before the age of 18.

    Source: 2025 IPC Classification Code

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