Sport week: Classification in sailing

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The athletes with the following impairments are eligible to compete in sailing:

• Impaired muscle power

• Athetosis

• Impaired passive range of movement

• Hypertonia

• Limb deficiency

• Ataxia

• Visual Impairment

Sailors are classified with a sport class from 1 to 7, with 7 indicating the least severe and 1 indicating the most severe eligible impairment. The following are the benchmark profiles of athletes in each sports class.

Sport class 1

Athletes may have complete quadriplegia, a double through shoulder amputation or an equivalent activity limitation in sailing caused by the other eligible impairment types.

Sport class 2

Athletes may have a double above elbow amputation, single above elbow amputation and single below elbow amputation or an equivalent activity limitation in sailing caused by the other eligible impairment types.

Sport class 3

Athletes may have a single above knee amputation and single above elbow amputation, double below elbow amputation or an equivalent activity limitation in sailing caused by the other eligible impairment types. These athletes may also have a visual impairment equivalent to B1 as described in section 4 above.

Sport class 4

Athletes may have a single through shoulder amputation, double above knee amputation, double below knee amputation without prostheses, single above knee and single below knee amputation without prostheses or an equivalent activity limitation in sailing caused by the other eligible impairment types.

Sport class 5

Athletes may have a single above elbow amputation, single above knee amputation and single below knee amputation with prostheses or an equivalent activity limitation in sailing caused by the other eligible impairment types. These athletes may also have a visual impairment equivalent to B2 with a higher visual acuity than athletes competing in the sport class 3 and/ or a visual field of less than 5 degrees radius.

Sport class 6

Athletes may have a double below knee amputation with prostheses, single below elbow amputation or have an equivalent activity limitation in sailing caused by the other eligible impairment types.

Sport class 7

Athletes may have a single above knee amputation, single below knee amputation without prosthesis (excluding Symes amputation or equivalent) or an equivalent activity limitation in sailing caused by the other eligible impairment types. These athletes may also have a visual impairment equivalent to B3; they are the least severe visual impairment eligible for Paralympic sport. They have the highest visual acuity and/or a visual field of less than 20 degrees radius.

Events

Three-person keelboat

To make sure that no crew has an advantage or disadvantage in competition due to impairment, each crew is only allowed a maximum of 14 points.

Two-person keelboat

One sailor has to be allocated the sport class “TPA” and the other one has to be allocated the sport class “TPB.” One of the crew members must be female.

The sport class TPA includes athletes with more severe impairments, which are equivalent to a sport class 1 or 2. Athletes with complete tetraplegia or a double above-the-elbow amputation could, for example, compete in the TPA sport class.

The sport class TPB means that an athlete only has to meet the minimum impairment criteria for sailing. Therefore, athletes of all seven sport classes could compete in the TPB sport class, including athletes with visual impairment.

Single-person keelboat

To sail on the single-person keelboat athletes only have to pass the minimum impairment criteria.

Helpful links

IPC classification webpage

Para World Sailing classification manual

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