FEATURE STORY/ SPORTS OF THE PARAPAN AM GAMES
I
f you’re not very familiar with the
Parapan Am Games, you probably
have questions. You’ve treated soccer
players before, but how do blind people
play soccer? The rules are probably
different, but how much? How can I find
out if there are athletes with disabilities
training nearby?
Working with athletes with
disabilities can be a highly rewarding
experience — and not because of any
notions about inspiration or charity. This
is an opportunity to work closely with
high-performance athletes competing
on an international level and to hone
your skills in a new context. These
athletes are not under pressure to turn
their sport into a livelihood like many
able-bodied athletes are, so they can
focus on their love of sport and their
personal goals. Many coaches and
health care professionals say this is a
refreshing change. What’s more, if you
can help them improve their game you’ll
automatically make their day-to-day
tasks easier.
Chiropractors are well suited to
support athletes with disabilities and
Canada is getting serious about helping
them train to compete internationally,
so it’s a great time to get curious. In
this article, we’ll introduce you to the
Parapan Am Games and its various
sports. In an upcoming issue we’ll
discuss types of impairment and insights
from the Coaches Association of Canada
on working with athletes with disabilities.
Welcome to Toronto 2015!
T
he Parapan Am Games started
in Mexico City in 1999 with
1,000 athletes from 18 countries
competing in four sports. In the years
since then, it’s grown tremendously. This
past August, the Toronto 2015 Parapan
Am Games featured 1,608 athletes from
8
FALL 2015
28 countries competing in 15 sports —
including the debut of a Canadian sport,
wheelchair rugby. All of the sports at
Toronto 2015 were qualifiers for the Rio
2016 Paralympic Games.
Principles of Sport
Adaptations
S
ome Parapan Am sports such as
goalball are unique to para-sport.
Other sports are more familiar
to the general public and are adapted
to allow all athletes to fully participate.
There are two key principles for
designing these adaptations.
First, adapt the sport — not
the athletes.
No one is singled out for special
treatment. A great example of this
is football 5-a-side, an adaptation
of soccer for athletes with visual
impairments. Some players have limited
sight and others have none. Football
5-a-side deals with this varying level
of ability by adapting the equipment
used by the players. All players except
the goalies wear eyeshades so they
cannot see while playing and the ball is
equipped with a noisemaker so it can
be located by sound. These adaptations
level the playing field so no individual
player is disadvantaged by their
particular disability.
Second, keep adaptations as
simple as possible.
Major adaptations are often unnecessary
and would interfere with the integrity
of the sport. In wheelchair basketball,
the court is the same size, the net is the
same height and the shot clock doesn’t
slow down for anyone. Its adaptations
from standing basketball are minor. For
example, players can push their chair
ON Chiropractic
and dribble simultaneously or they can
place the ball in their lap and push their
chair twice before they must shoot,
pass or dribble again. Fouls are called
if athletes use their legs to rise up in
their chairs. This approach ensures that
players can compete purely on skill
while the sport remains true to its spirit.
The key parameters that can be used
to adapt an activity or a sport include:
∞∞ Ataxia (a lack of muscle
coordination)
∞∞ Athetosis (unbalanced, involuntary
movements and difficulty
maintaining a symmetrical posture)
∞∞ Visual impairments which limit or
prevent visual capacity
∞∞ Intellectual impairments which
significantly limit intellectual
functioning and adaptive behaviour
∞∞ Space
∞∞ Time
∞∞ Speed of execution
∞∞ Equipment
∞∞ Environment
∞∞ Rules
Sport Classes
M
any sports for athletes with
impairments use “sport classes”
to minimize the impact of
impairments on fair competition.
Similar to weight and gender classes,
sport classes group athletes based on
their functional ability. Athletes may be
reassessed throughout their career, and
classification rules evolve over time.
Athletes in the Parapan Am Games
have one or more v