Parasports

Parasports are sports practiced by people with disabilities, including adapted mainstream sports and sports designed specifically for disabled athletes. Rules, equipment, and competition formats may be modified to support participation and fair competition.

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Disability sport classification: A system that groups athletes by how an impairment affects performance in a particular sport. Classification aims to make competition fair without treating all disabilities or sports as equivalent.
Wheelchair basketball: A form of basketball played by athletes using sports wheelchairs, with rules adapted for wheelchair movement. It adapts a mainstream team sport while retaining many of basketball’s core rules.
Stoke Mandeville Games: A sporting event for wheelchair athletes first held in 1948 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England. The event is a key origin point for organized international disability sport.
Deaf sport: Sport organized for deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, often using visual communication and signals. Deaf sport has distinct institutions and is not generally governed by the Paralympic system.
Disability rights movement: A movement seeking equal rights, access, and social participation for disabled people. Advocacy for accessible sport is part of broader struggles for equal participation.
Adaptive sports equipment: Equipment modified or designed to enable people with disabilities to participate in physical activity and sport. Specialized chairs, prostheses, and other equipment can make a sport accessible or alter its technique.
Wheelchair rugby: A full-contact team sport played by athletes with impairments affecting all four limbs, using specialized wheelchairs. Its equipment and classification system are tailored to athletes with substantial limb impairments.
Ludwig Guttmann: A neurologist who organized the Stoke Mandeville Games and promoted sport in spinal injury rehabilitation. His rehabilitation program helped establish competitive sport as part of life after spinal injury.
Special Olympics: An international sports movement providing training and competition for people with intellectual disabilities. It is a major disability-sport movement distinct from the Paralympic Games.
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A United Nations treaty affirming the rights of persons with disabilities, including participation in recreation and sport. Article 30 explicitly addresses access to sporting and recreational activities.