New system for impaired athletes
Queensland sports scientist Sean Tweedy leads an international team of 24 people on five continents who are re-evaluating the classification of track and field athletes with disabilities.
Classification is central to these sports, because athletes are placed in classes that reflect the degree to which their disability affects their performance.
“The project is needed because the current classification system is based on outdated concepts which are no longer appropriate for classifying the huge variety of people with disabilities who wish to compete in track and field,” Mr Tweedy said.
A research fellow in the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland, he said disability sport had its origins in rehabilitation programs.
That’s reflected in the present classification system, which is based on diagnostic criteria.
“Rather than that, we’re looking at how particular impairments impact on performance,” he said.
“From there, we look at developing them on a
sports specific basis.
“We want to establish classification profiles for the types of problems an athlete has.”
Mr Tweedy has been involved in disability sports since 1984 and an internationally recognised classifier for the last 12 years.
“The new classifications must have been validated for at least two years before they can be implemented,” he said.
“We’re hoping to conduct our final trials at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008. Competition in Beijing will still be based on existing classifications but we’ll ghost them, using the new criteria.
“That should give us a wealth of information that we can use for validation of the new criteria and also show us if there’s any need to modify those criteria.”
Mr Tweedy said the project, backed by the International Paralympic Committee and the Australian Sports Commission, had attracted a great deal of interest.
“People are very interested, very enthusiastic,” he said. “We hope to introduce the new classifications at the World Championships for Disability Athletes in 2010.”
Paralympic gold medallists Katrina Webb (left) and Amy Winter with Sean Tweedy.
