PARACANOE

Paracanoe is the canoeing discipline for athletes with an impairment and races are contested by two types of boat, kayak (K) and va’a (V). The kayak is propelled by a double-blade paddle, while the va’a is an outrigger canoe which has an ama (second pontoon) as a support float and is used with a single-blade paddle. Both kayak and va’a have three different classes of event for men and women, depending on the classification of an athlete’s impairment, with KL1, KL2 and KL3 for kayak and VL1, VL2 and VL3 for va’a. At international level all Paracanoe races are individual events and competed at a distance of 200m.

Paracanoe began as an initiative by the International Canoe Federation (ICF) to allow athletes with an impairment to compete in the sport. The discipline featured with exhibition status under the name paddleability at the 2009 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Dartmouth, Canada, and was given official status as Paracanoe the following year. Paracanoe made its debut at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games. 

Classification

To be eligible to compete, athletes must be classified under the ICF classification guidelines. There are three eligible impairment types for paracanoe at National, International and Paralympic level, Impaired Muscle Power, Impaired Passive Range of Movement and Limb Deficiency.

The ICF recently published the provisional 'Upper Limb Illustrated Guide to Classification' document, which is to be used at national level to expand national Paracanoe activities to include upper limb impairments.

Impaired Muscle Power

• Athletes with Impaired Muscle Power have a Health Condition that either reduces or eliminates their ability to voluntarily contract their muscles in order to move or to generate force.
• Examples of an Underlying Health Condition that may lead to Impaired Muscle Power include spinal cord injury (complete or incomplete, tetra-or paraplegia or paraparesis), muscular dystrophy, post-polio syndrome and spina bifida.

Impaired Passive Range of Movement 

• Athletes with Impaired Passive Range of Movement have a restriction or a lack of passive movement in one or more joints.
• Examples of an Underlying Health Condition that may lead to Impaired Passive Range of Movement include arthrogryposis and contracture resulting from chronic joint immobilisation, or trauma affecting a joint.
• Limb Deficiency 
• Athletes with Limb Deficiency have total or partial absence of bones or joints as a consequence of trauma (for example traumatic amputation), illness (for example amputation due to bone cancer) or congenital limb deficiency (for example dysmelia).

Further information and resources on classification and rules are available on the ICF website by clicking on the button below.