Medical classification in sport of disabled people

Szmelcer Beniamin, Trzebiatowska Agata, Wilczyński Michał, Miętkowska Paulina, Gajos Małgorzata, Skierkowska Natalia, Prylińska Monika, Husejko Jakub, Wysocka Oktawia, Topka Weronika, Łabędź Magdalena, Kędziora‑Kornatowska Kornelia. Medical classification in sport of disabled people. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2018;8(8):587-597. eISNN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1324152 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/5683 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part b item 1223 (26/01/2017). 1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eissn 2391-8306 7 © The Authors 2018; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 20.06.2018. Revised: 28.06.2018. Accepted: 31.07.2018. Medical classification in sport of disabled people Beniamin Szmelcer1, Agata Trzebiatowska1, Michał Wilczyński1, Paulina Miętkowska1, Małgorzata Gajos1, Natalia Skierkowska1, Monika Prylińska1, Jakub Husejko1, Oktawia Wysocka1, Weronika Topka1, Magdalena Łabędź1, Kornelia Kędziora‑Kornatowska1 1. Faculty of Health Sciences, Department and Clinic of Geriatrics, Nicolaus Copernicus University Abstract: Background: In the live of disabled people sport is very important not only in terms of health, but often becomes a passion that gives the life meaning. For many disabled athletes this passion becomes their profession. Medico-sport classification divides athletes into groups and classes based on the type of the physical and mental dysfunction in order to equalize the odds in a sports competition. Material and methods: Analysis of available literature, articles in the Google Scholar and PubMed database using keywords: disabled, sport, classification, dysfunction. Results: Medical-sport classification distinguishes groups of disability of: sight, hearing, limb dismemberment, paraplegia, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, cerebral palsy and intellectual disability. In the professional sport the athletes classification is done by medical doctors in cooperation with physiotherapists under the supervision of the Central Classification Committee of the “Start” organization, which verifies and approves the athletes membership to a certain group or class. During the athletes World Championships decision about the classification is done by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreations Association (CP – ISRA) and International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS). The group/class examination is carried out during the most important sports events like Paralympic Games, World Championships and European Athletics Championships, and remains valid for the next four years. Conclusions: The aim of this classification is to make the athlete’s achievement in a sport competition be a result of the athlete’s physical and psychological training rather than the level of his or hers disability. The subject of grouping and classification of the disabled athletes still remains an open topic for discussion. Key words: disabled, sport, classification, dysfunctio