Winter Paralympic sport classification guide

Paralympic sports use a process known as “classification“ to create a level playing field and include athletes with a wide range of disabilities.

Athlete classification is one of the most unique and confusing aspects of the Paralympic Games. The easiest way to understand classification is to compare it to weight classes in boxing or mixed martial arts. It wouldn't be fair to let a 200-pound heavyweight fight against a 120-pound flyweight. Paralympic classification works the same way.

The goal of classification is to ensure that medals are decided by an athlete’s performance, rather than by the nature of their disability or impairment.

The 2026 Winter Paralympics will welcome over 600 athletes to Italy this week to compete in six different sports. Here's how they work:

Para Alpine Skiing

All skiing events at the Paralympics are organized into three distinct categories: Sitting, Standing, and Visually Impaired. Sitting athletes have lower body impairments and compete using a sit-ski. Standing athletes have either an upper or lower body impairment and compete in a standing position, sometimes using prosthetics or outriggers. Visually impaired athletes ski just a few meters behind a sighted guide who communicates with them verbally or via Bluetooth during training and races.

Each category has its own slate of men's and women's medal events. In other words, the sitting athletes do not compete against the standing athletes. Within each category, athletes are further classified based on the level of their impairment and a time factoring system is applied so that each competitor has a fair shot at the podium.

Para Biathlon

Para Biathlon combines a grueling cross-country ski race with rifle shooting. The sport has a well-established pathway from military service to elite competition and uses some of the most advanced adaptive technology in the games. For example, visually impaired athletes shoot rifles equipped with headphones and an acoustic aiming system. The laser-guided system produces a high-pitched sound as their aim gets closer to the target. There are sprint, middle-distance, and long-distance events.

Para Cross-Country Skiing

Para Cross-Country Skiing is another endurance event that is staged on the same varied terrain as the Olympics. There are sprint, middle-distance, and long-distance events, as well as a mixed classification team event that combines sitting, standing, and visually impaired athletes in a relay. The time factoring system allows athletes with different functional abilities to compete together in classic or freestyle events.

Para Snowboard

There are two types of snowboarding events at the Paralympics: Snowboard Cross and Banked Slalom. Snowboard Cross features a small group of competitors racing head-to-head over a chaotic course featuring jumps, rollers, and turns. Banked Slalom is an individual timed race with more emphasis on speed and technique.

The men’s Para Snowboard competition has two distinct classes for athletes with lower body impairments as well as one class for athletes with upper body impairments. The women’s competition currently has just one combined class for athletes with lower body impairments. The main difference between the skiing and snowboarding events is that there is no time factoring in Para Snowboard.

Para Ice Hockey

Para Ice Hockey is mostly known as "Sled Hockey" in the United States but is called "Sledge Hockey" pretty much everywhere else. Para Ice Hockey athletes maneuver around a regulation ice rink on aluminum sleds mounted to a double skate blade underneath. Players utilize two hockey sticks (one in each hand) that are cut down to about 3-feet long with ice picks attached to the end. They use the modified sticks not only to pass and shoot, but also to pull and propel themselves across the ice surface. The game is played 5v5 with typical ice hockey rules and modified team benches that allow easy access to the ice.

Para Ice Hockey is a mixed gender sport at the Paralympics, although the vast majority of roster spots are filled by men. The sport is somewhat unique in that there is a single classification for all eligible athletes. Players must have a permanent lower body impairment that prevents them from playing stand-up versions of ice hockey in order to participate. This is known as the "minimum impairment criteria" — an important aspect of para sport which defines athlete eligibility.

Wheelchair Curling

Wheelchair Curling made its Paralympic debut at the 2006 games in Torino. Twenty years later, the sport returns to Italy with a brand-new format — mixed doubles — to go along with the classic team event featuring four players per side. Wheelchair Curling is contested on the same ice with the same strategy as its Olympic counterpart. The primary difference is that there are no sweepers in the wheelchair game.

Similar to Para Ice Hockey, Wheelchair Curling has just one athlete class and is also mixed gender. Unlike Para Ice Hockey, Wheelchair Curling explicitly requires having both men and women on the ice during team and doubles competition. While all athletes must use a wheelchair during play, it is important to recognize that some eligible players may not use a wheelchair for daily life.