[Music] in the par Olympic Games the classification system is essential as it defines which athletes can compete in which sports athletes are divided into classes based on how their impairment affects them on the field of play in order to allow Fair competition if you're new to classification it can help to think of why men almost always compete against men and women almost always compete against women or think of it in similar terms to how boxing at the Olympic Games Works where athletes compete in different weight categories like flyweight or heavyweight as each sport at the par Olympic Games requires different skills and competencies the impact of impairments on the performance of the athletes varies that's why each sport has its own unique classification rules some sports feature a wide variety of impairments in both Athletics and swimming athletes with physical Visual and intellectual impairments compete other sports feature fewer types of impairment for example only athletes with a visual impairment take part in Judo and fide football at the games Athletics has the most number of classes due to the number of of different running jumping and throwing events and the wide variety of athletes that can compete in the sport in contrast shooting only has two classes each athlete competing at a par Olympic games has already gone through an evaluation to determine their class this evaluation is conducted by authorized technical officials called classifiers who are appointed by the International Federation for that sport this is a long-term ongoing process which takes place at all major events before and during competition it ensures that the athletes are confident they are competing against each other on a Level Playing Field classification won't get in the way of your enjoyment as a spectator and will also help you further appreciate the ability and the performance of the athletes the the Paralympics is not about the impairments it's all about Elite Sport let the games [Music] begin