SM8, T47, F38: What the classifications for para athletes mean

IF YOU’VE been watching the Commonwealth Games, there may have been some terms you didn’t understand. Here’s how to decipher it all.

AUSTRALIA has reigned supreme in the pool at the Commonwealth Games. Alongside the fairytale wins from both Campbell sisters and Mitch Larkin’s unprecedented “triple crown” there’s been some less well known winners in the pool.

On Saturday, Timothy Disken, Timothy Hodge and Blake Cochrane swept the medals in the SB8 100m breaststroke final.

On Sunday, Lakeisha Patterson took out the S9 100m freestyle title while Jesse Aungles won the SM8 200m medley final in 2:30.77.

There’s no doubt having para-athletes compete in the same competition as their able bodied counterparts at the Comm Games, unlike in a separate event such as the Paralympics, has massively upped the profile of disabled sports men and women.

But why are combinations of letters and numbers, such as SB8 and S9, added to the events which para-athletes compete in?

(L-R) Timothy Hodge, Timothy Disken and Blake Cochrane took all the medals at the Men's SB8 100m Breaststroke Final on day three of swimming competition at the Commonwealth Games. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt.

T47, T38, B6, F38

Well, get your head around it because in the next few days you’ll have to decipher T47, T38, B6, F38 and many more.

It’s an alphabet soup that seems more like a list of express bus routes than something people sweat blood for.

Let’s defer to the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) who state that, “an athlete who wishes to compete in Para-sport must have an eligible impairment that leads to a permanent activity limitation”.

Types of physical impairment might be limb loss or limb deficiency, muscle weakness, hypertonic, ataxia, athetosis, joint restrictions, short stature or leg length difference.

Once admitted, the individual events they compete in are given a classification — a number and letter.

“Classification groups athletes who have similar impairments together into classes for competition in their particular sport,” said the APC.

“By grouping similar athletes together, an athlete’s disability plays less of an impact on the outcomes of competition.

“This means that classification helps to allow the fastest, strongest or best athletes in each class to succeed in their sport.”

Lakeisha Patterson of Australia after winning the Women's S9 100m Freestyle final. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt.

THE LETTERS AND NUMBERS

Each Paralympic sport has a different classification system.

The letters are the easiest bit. Each refers to a different sport so “S” is for swimming “T” for track events such as sprinting, “F” for field events like javelin and “B” is for lawn bowls.

But it’s a bit more nuanced than that. “S” on its own is reserved for freestyle, butterfly and backstroke, ‘SM” is the swimming medley and “SB” stands for backstroke.

The number following the letter designates the ability level of the competitors.

In swimming, classes 1-10 are for athletes with a physical impairment, 11-13 denotes a visual impairment while 14 is for athletes with an intellectual impairment.

Professor Keith Lyons, the Director of the National Institute of Sport Studies at the University of Canberra, said the lower the number the more severe the impairment.

“If a swimmer is classified as S1, he or she will have a significant loss of muscle power or control in his or her legs, arms, hands and torso. These impairments may be caused by spinal-cord injuries or polio. A swimmer in this class usually uses a wheelchair in daily life,” he wrote for The Conversation in 2012.

Para-swimmer Jesse Aungles won gold at the Comm Games.

“A swimmer classified as S10 will be impeded far less by their impairment when competing.”

In track and field, the numbers also denote the type and level of impairment but the system varies.

Classes 11-13 are for athletes with a visual impairment, 20 for those with an intellectual impairment and 31-38 for athletes with cerebral palsy.

Classes 40-46 are for competitors with an impairment that affects their arms or legs which will include amputates while 51-58 are for wheelchair racers or field athletes who throw from a seated position.

Again, the lower the number in each range, the lesser the impairment.

If you’re watching the coverage, the para events will often include a graphic showing the impairment for each athlete. They may not be identical but it will have been assessed that, among the group competing, the various impairments have an equal impact on each individual.

“To evaluate the impact of impairments on swimming, classifiers assess all functional body structures using a point system and ask the athlete to complete a water assessment. The total number of points then determines the athlete’s S and SB sport classes,” states the World Para Swimming organisation.

So, it’s like an equation — add the sport to the impairment and you’ll know that S1 will be an event for swimmers with a significant physical impairment while F38 is a field event for athletes with cerebral palsy.

With that sorted, settle down and barrack for our para-athletes to add even more gold to team green and gold.