Para Sport
Competitive sport organised for athletes with a physical, visual, or intellectual impairment.
Definition
Para sport is the umbrella label for organised, competitive sport designed for athletes who have an eligible impairment, spanning disciplines from athletics and swimming to cycling, wheelchair basketball, and many others. The "para" prefix indicates that the sport runs in parallel to non-disabled competition, often using the same core rules with defined adaptations rather than a separate or lesser version of the game.
Most para sports pair competition with a classification process so that athletes compete against others with a comparable degree of activity limitation, keeping results a measure of skill, training, and tactics. The scope of para sport is broad and continues to expand, and terminology is best kept respectful and person-first, describing athletes by their sport and achievements rather than by their impairment.
Where you’ll hear “para sport”
Sports that use this term:
Swimming
A full-body, low-impact endurance sport suitable for almost every age and ability.
Cycling
A low-impact endurance sport that doubles as transport, exercise and adventure.
Basketball
A fast, dynamic team sport of running, jumping and quick decisions on court.
Running
The most accessible endurance sport — no venue, just shoes and the open road or trail.
Explore across the knowledge base
Follow the threads that connect Para Sport to the rest of SocialSportHub.
Adaptive sports
- Para sportsThe competitive branch of adaptive sport, where athletes with disabilities train and compete, often within organised classification systems.
- Adaptive competitionsOrganised events where athletes with disabilities compete, from local grassroots fixtures up to major international championships.
- Adaptive coachingCoaching that adjusts how it teaches — communication, planning and pace — so that people with a disability can learn, improve and enjoy a sport.
- Ambulant Para SportsPara sports for athletes who compete standing or on foot — walking or running — rather than from a wheelchair or seated position.
- Classification in para sportThe system used in para sport to group athletes so that competition is fair — decided by how much an impairment affects a specific sport.
Knowledge Atlas
Practice & sessions
- Conditioning sessionA session built around physical conditioning — developing the fitness qualities a sport draws on, rather than its skills or tactics.
- Technical sessionA session built around technique — grooving and refining the mechanics of how a movement or shot is executed.
- Tactical sessionA session built around tactics — how you use space, position and patterns of play, rather than the mechanics of a shot.
- Open-play sessionA turn-up-and-play session of informal, often social games — less structured than practice, focused on playing rather than drilling.
- Skill-development sessionA session built around learning and improving a skill over time — acquiring it, refining it and making it more reliable.
People
- Competitive athletesHow the platform fits someone who trains and plays to compete — structured, goal-directed preparation with coaching and recovery central.
- ChildrenHow sport can fit into a child’s life through play, variety and supported, age-appropriate movement.
- Weekend athletesHow to enjoy recreational sport on weekends while staying comfortable and consistent through the week.
- Recreational athletesHow the platform fits someone who plays regularly for enjoyment and fitness rather than competition — staying active, sociable and healthy through sport.
Disciplines
- Sparring (Kyorugi)Kyorugi is taekwondo's competitive sparring discipline, where two athletes score points by landing controlled kicks and punches on legal target areas within timed rounds.
- KumiteKumite is the sparring discipline of karate, in which two athletes exchange controlled strikes and kicks under judged rules.
- BackstrokeBackstroke is swum face-up with an alternating arm pull and flutter kick — the one competitive stroke where you breathe freely because your face stays out of the water.
Coaching concepts
- Decision-Making PracticeTraining athletes to read cues and choose the right action under pressure — coupling perception to action, not just rehearsing physical technique in isolation.
- Session StructureHow a practice session is organised into phases — warm-up, main focus, game application and cool-down — so time is used well and learning sticks.
Go deeper with Para Sport
Everywhere else on the platform that covers Para Sport — assembled from what actually references it, so nothing here is a dead end.
Take it away
Open data and the whole-platform view of this subject.
How this page is maintained
- Content type
- Term
- Provenance
- Tier A — evergreen educational
- Verified external sources
- 0
- Content updated
- 2026-08-04
Evergreen, first-party explanation — it makes no claim that needs an external source. How we handle sources and reviews.