Eligibility workshop to be hosted in Aguascalientes
The International Federation for Intellectual Impairment Sport (World Intellectual Impairment Sport) has announced that a workshop on athlete eligibility will be held during the 2017 World Intellectual Impairment Sport Swimming Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
The workshop will take place on 1 December and will be led by Professor Jan Burns MBE, Chairperson of the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Eligibility Committee.
It is designed to help people working in National Federations understand the World Intellectual Impairment Sport eligibility process. Some recent developments, including the trials of additional impairment groups for athletes with Down’s syndrome and autism, will also be highlighted and explained.
Delegates can register at the World Intellectual Impairment Sport website and Professor Burns encouraged people to take part:
“As this is the first swimming Championships to take place in the Americas, part of its success will be the legacy that is left behind and we hope that coaches, team members and representatives from federations will come along.
“The workshop is open to all World Intellectual Impairment Sport members but we particularly encourage those from the Americas region to attend. Aguascalientes 2017 provides a great opportunity for our colleagues in the area to learn more about eligibility.
“We are also trying to raise awareness of the crucial role World Intellectual Impairment Sport has in helping athletes go forward to compete in Paralympic competition as well as other elite level events.“
Para-sport has a classification process which all athletes must go through in order to compete. Athletes with an intellectual impairment must meet the criteria as defined by World Intellectual Impairment Sport which are based on the World Health Organisation and American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities definitions.
World Intellectual Impairment Sport manages this process before athletes then go on to be classified according to the sport they compete in.
The workshop is being organised and hosted by FEMEDE (Federación Mexicana de Deportistas Especiales), the Local Organising Committee of the 2017 World Intellectual Impairment Sport Swimming Championships.
The competition itself is expected to attract around 150 swimmers from 20 countries between 28 November – 3 December and is being sanctioned by World Para Swimming.
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The International Federation for Intellectual Impairment Sport (World Intellectual Impairment Sport) represents more than 300,000 athletes with intellectual impairments around the world. We give elite athletes the chance to compete at an international level and on the Paralympic stage. But we cannot continue our work towards the inclusion of the world’s biggest impairment group in society without your support.
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