Athletics offers a wide range of competitions and the largest number of events. Athletics includes:
- Track events: Sprint (100m, 200m, 400m), Middle Distance (800m, 1500m), Long Distance (5,000m, 10,000m), and Relay races (4x100m, 4x400m)
- Road event: Marathon
- Jumping events: High Jump, Long Jump, and Triple Jump
- Throwing events: Discus, Shot Put, and Javelin
- Combined events: Pentathlon (track and road events, jumping events, and throwing events, depending on the athletes' classification)
The rules of Paralympic track and field are almost identical to those of its Olympic counterparts. Allowances are made to accommodate certain disabilities (for example, the blind and more severely visually impaired runners often compete with guide runners attached to them with a tether at the wrist).
Athletics are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) with co-ordination from the IPC Athletics Sports Manager and Technical Committee. For more information about Canadian Athletics for disabled athletes go to the National Sport Federation: Athletics Canada.
Classification
Athletics events are open to all athletes in all disability classes. However, not all events are offered to all disability classes (for example, athletes with cerebral palsy do not compete in the marathon, 10,000m, the high jump, or triple jump events, but compete in all other track events and all throwing events).
Athletes compete according to their functional classifications in each event, which are continually redefined to include as many athletes as possible. A brief classification guide is as follows (prefixing F for field athletes or T for track athletes):
- F or T 11-13 are visually impaired
- F or T 31-38 are cerebral palsy
- F or T 41-46 amputee and les autres
- T 51-54 wheelchair track athletes
- F 51-58 wheelchair field athletes
Athletes from all disability categories represented in the IPC compete in track and field events.
- Classes 11, 12 and 13 cover the different levels of visual impairment
- Classes 32-38 cover athletes with different levels of cerebral palsy - both wheelchair (32 - 34) and ambulant (35 - 38)
- Classes 40-46 cover ambulant athletes with different levels of amputations and other disabilities, including les autres
- Classes 51-58 cover wheelchair athletes with different levels of spinal cord injuries and amputations
- Classes 11, 12 and 13 cover the different levels of visual impairment
History
Athletics events have been a part of the Paralympic programme since the first Paralympic Games in Rome, Italy, in 1960. Wheelchair racing for a 60 metre distance was first included in the 1964 Tokyo Games. This continued to be the standard racing distance until 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m events were introduced at the 1976 Toronto Games.
