classification in Paris sport determines if an athlete is eligible to compete and how they are grouped together this process safeguards the Integrity of Fair competition in adaptive sport an athlete may meet the criteria for one sport while not being eligible for another the different classifications are designated a letter and a number and the letter corresponds with the sport while the number represents the level of impairment athletes are also grouped into sport classes based on the level of their impairment in some sports different classifications May compete in the same sport class based on the impact the impairment has on their performance just this week us swimmer Christy Raleigh Crossley set a world record in the women's s950 M freestyle but won a silver medal in the final because the championship Heat combin the S9 and S10 classifications there are 10 different impairment types which are divided into three groups physical Visual and intellectual some sports offer opportunities in multiple types of impairment like par of table tenants While others are specific to one group like goldall the international paralympic committee follow follows a specific method in order to properly classify para athletes there are a panel of Physicians that go through a point list to help us determine what is the most Fair range for sport an athletes impairment progresses over time and their classification might change over the course of their career