Paralympic Cheerleading Eligibility

To participate in any Paralympic recognised sport you need to have a classification which confirms you have a Paralympic Eligible Impairment and that the impairment is one that the sport has categories for.

What is a Paralympic Eligible Impairment? 

To understand if your condition matches basic Paralympic eligibility the condition needs to meet the criteria listed below, and be constant, measurable, and sport specific. Since we don’t currently have a confirmation from the ICU of what the sport specific criteria are for the Paralympics, we are looking at the first three points above.

Not all disabilities, or parts of a person’s medical condition, are eligible for Paralympic classification, there is a strict and defined list of what is and isn’t allowed to participate. We understand that this feels unfair and unjust, that’s why we have always worked to ensure first and foremost there is an opportunity for everyone to participate in full inclusive clubs and divisions under the Adaptive Abilities programme, which will continue to run. For this project however we need to be much stricter and can only accept people we feel would fit under the impairments listed as eligible under the Paralympics system.

Those are:

·       Vision Impairment

·       Intellectual Impairment

·       Impaired Muscle Power

·       Impaired Passive Range of Movement

·       Limb Deficiency

·       Leg Length Difference

·       Short Stature

·       Hypertonia

·       Ataxia

·       Athetosis

To find out more information you can follow this link - https://ipc-classification.reclaim.hosting/resources/eligible_impairments/index.html Currently Cheerleading is developing what criteria will be classifiable for participation in the Paralympic recognised divisions as it grows towards those opportunities. As part of the work we are doing for the development of Team ParaCheer GB we are planning to work alongside the ICU and IPC to help understand this unique area of Paralympic sport.