The sports Movement for Paralympic athletes has changed dramatically over the last decade. With confidence I can say that there are even more changes ahead.

The vision of the International Paralympic Committee, which is “to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world”, highlights the development of all athletes from just beginning, up to the elite level, as they travel on a road to sporting excellence.

Public awareness has increased.  As more and more individuals of all ages with an impairment are finding interest in sport, various programmes and opportunities worldwide have increased in scope and number. Overall, sport has become a viable option for individuals with an impairment. China is an excellent example of this growth by both its Paralympic team that will compete in Beijing in a month’s time, and also the number of Chinese taking up Paralympic sport.

From the early 1970s, research indicated a growing interest in the further development of sport for persons with an impairment. Sport science had thus comfortably found its application in Paralympic Sport.

In 1993, during the successful VISTA 1993 Conference, the International Paralympic Committee established a Sport Science Committee, recognizing the value of sports science to the advancement of knowledge in Paralympic sports. We can now see that a lot of progress has been made over the past decade.

However, with so many expert researchers currently meeting here in Guangzhou, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight some of the prominent sport science challenges facing Paralympic Sport.

At the moment, Paralympic athletes are grouped into classes defined by the degree of function they possess. This process, called ‘classification’, ensures fair competition, and as such, is no different from the categorization by weight class, gender or age classically applied in sports. In 2007, the IPC adopted a functional classification system on the basis of scientific evidence for all Paralympic sports. This was to ensure that competitive success is only determined by strategies, skills, and the talent of the athletes. Such an approach calls for an in-depth understanding of all determinants of sport-specific performances. As this approach is multi-disciplinary and mainly sport and impairment specific, international co-operation between research teams is crucial in order to achieve a clear, unambiguous and internationally recognized classification system.

Impairment-specific responses to exercise are another area of particular interest. For example, paralysis in the case of spinal cord injury carries the risk of significant reduction of cardiac efficiency and disturbed thermo-regulation. In a sporting environment, this calls for the development of adaptation strategies which include specific metabolic response and peripheral adaptation to exercise, as well as the optimization of sports equipment. It shows the complexity of sports counseling in Paralympic sports.

Now, participation in sports comes with an associated risk of injury. Despite the growing awareness and popularity of Paralympic sports, there continues to be a limited amount of published research about the understanding of the injury patterns and risk factors for injury among elite Paralympic athletes.

Data collected during the Salt Lake 2002 Paralympic Winter Games showed an injury rate in excess of one in ten athletes in Alpine Skiing and Ice Sledge Hockey. This led to the development of rule changes, such as the use of shock absorbers and protective shells in sit skis and hockey sledges.

In the same way, a comparatively ‘routine’ shoulder overuse injury that might be a mere ‘nuisance’ for an Olympic athlete may compromise the ability of a wheelchair athlete to not only continue pursuing a sports career, but also to remain independently mobile. Consequently, the collective expertise of different disciplines needs to be brought together in the development, testing, and implementation of injury-prevention strategies.

Like Olympic athletes, Paralympic athletes must obey drug-free sport laws, without exception. Anti-doping, however, has a Paralympic-specific dimension that calls for the inclusion of experts in sport and rehabilitation medicine in the Athlete Support Team. One of the particular challenges lies in the management of Therapeutic Use Exemptions. This is when a minority of Paralympic athletes may need medication that otherwise is listed as a Prohibited Substance. It calls for an intensified educational effort on anti-doping strategies. Additionally, elevated arterial blood pressure and associated cardiovascular responses are associated with enhanced physical performance and are likely to voluntarily occur in athletes with high spinal cord lesions. This demands careful monitoring processes similar to the development of a biological athlete passport.

Another challenge in the Paralympic-specific segment of anti-doping is the development of advanced technological equipment, such as osteo-integrated prostheses. While it is acknowledged that this kind of human body–running device is beneficial from a biomechanical point of view, it can give rise to an ethical debate.

Paralympic Sport is the outcome of strong desires and dreams, and most practically, what people have made out of those strong desires and dreams. Each one of today’s Paralympic athletes started from somewhere: in the back garden with family and friends, at school with peers and teachers, or in the local sport club. A major success of the Athens 2004 and Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games was the National Education Programme that targeted primary and secondary school students. The result was a strong belief that success in the Paralympic Games was success in sport, and at least equal to success in the Olympic Games.  The programme’s goal of educating youth about Paralympic Sport was reached and therefore continues to create awareness and understanding about ALL persons in society.

As you can see, the challenges in Paralympic sports are multi-disciplinary. They call for a co-operative approach by researchers, working together with the relevant International Sports Federations that administer Paralympic Sport and support Paralympic athletes.

ICSEMIS is unique in its gathering of expertise that was previously spread over multiple conferences. The close co-operation of researchers from Olympic sports with experts in Paralympic sports has the added value of transfer of knowledge about sports, disciplines and athlete profiles. This ultimately may answer any questions from the athletes or their coaches. All of the above will be addressed in the upcoming days during symposia and scientific presentations.

I want to extend an invitation to all of you to join those sessions. You will be able to actively contribute to gaining more knowledge in working toward achieving success with Paralympic athletes - “to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world”.

In finishing, I also want to invite as many of you as possible to experience
Paralympians in action at the XIII Paralympic Games starting on the 6th
September in Beijing, Qingdao and Hong Kong.