{"id":145261,"date":"2015-07-23T14:00:09","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T21:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=145261"},"modified":"2015-07-22T18:09:30","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T01:09:30","slug":"classed-out-a-quest-to-understand-the-ipc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/classed-out-a-quest-to-understand-the-ipc\/","title":{"rendered":"Classed Out: A Quest to Understand the IPC"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Lloyd, Swimming World College Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Day in and day out, as thousands and thousands of swimmers churn out countless numbers of yards–a physical feat in itself–there are thousands more\u00a0who complete the same task at physical disadvantages. These athletes compete with a range of disabilities–amputations, dwarfism, variations of paraplegia, blindness, etc., which vary in severity, and undoubtedly\u00a0make swimming more difficult than it is for athletes without these physical conditions.<\/p>\n

Classification to Compete<\/h2>\n
\"Unknown<\/a>

Photo Courtesy: Norman Bailey\/Australian Paralympic Committee<\/p><\/div>\n

While para-athletes can compete against able-bodied athletes, 1960 saw the inception of the Paralympics: an iteration of the Olympic Games specifically for athletes with physical disabilities, which paved the way for a number of other para-sanctioned events so that these athletes could compete on an even playing field.<\/p>\n

At the heart of para-athletics is the classification process, which is used to place athletes into “sport classes<\/a>” based on an individual’s specific disability or impairment. According to the Paralympics Layman’s Guide to Paralympic Classification<\/a>\u00a0“[c]lassification determines who is eligible to compete in a Paralympic sport and it groups the eligible athletes into sport classes according to their activity limitation in a certain sport.”<\/p>\n

The classification takes place in four parts: a review of the medical records of the athlete in question, benchmark testing that includes analytical measures of power, coordination, range of motion\/limb deficiency, a water test including starts, turns, and all four strokes, and finally an observation of the first competition in the athletes’ new class.<\/p>\n

This process is undertaken by a panel made of up of some the 30 International Classifiers who have all been certified by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) through a standardized course. All are either medically qualified or have expertise in the field through coaching or a professional qualification such as sports science.<\/p>\n

According to Craig Spence<\/strong>, the Director of Media and Communications at the IPC, the classification process used today is a mid-1990s evolution of the system that was formulated in the 1960s and is “very transparent”. Each athlete’s classification records can be accessed by the athlete in question through a data base.<\/p>\n

Can It Go Wrong?<\/h2>\n

On paper, the classification process looks clear cut, albeit a bit complicated to those who do not have experience in the Paralympics. There is a clearly laid out process for classification with specific outcomes for specific observations and testing results. The classifiers are trained by the IPC and their reports are available to the athletes.<\/p>\n

But can it go wrong? Can it be so cut and dry that it could fail? 2012 Paralympic gold medalist in the Men’s S10 400 freestyle\u00a0Ian Silverman<\/strong> thinks so.<\/p>\n

Silverman, 19, was born with cerebral palsy, a neuromuscular disorder caused by a brain injury before birth. Cerebral palsy symptoms can range from completely debilitating (some individuals are unable to communicate or walk independently) to relatively minimal affects on muscle tone. Silverman says that he has “a constellation of mild symptoms” including the spastic lower extremities, the inability to stand flat-footed (thus, he stands and walks on his toes), limited flexibility in all limbs (he cannot bend over and touch past his knees), and poor fine motor skills, including hand tremors. He was introduced to swimming when he was a child as a form of physical therapy and quickly fell in love.<\/p>\n

After countless hours of physical and occupational therapy, multiple surgeries on each leg to lengthen the muscles, serial castings with the intention of bringing his heels to the ground, and a surgical reconstruction of his left foot recently, Silverman could easily have said “I can’t do it” in regards to swimming, but he never did.<\/p>\n

Training at NBAC, home of Michael Phelps<\/strong>, he became incredibly successful, despite physical limitations. Classified into S10 just four months before the London Games in 2012, Silverman burst onto the Paralympic scene and won gold at the games. Everything seemed perfect.<\/p>\n

And then in March of 2015, Silverman was classed out<\/a>. Suddenly, he was not disabled enough to compete in the Paralympics. According to Spence, Silverman’s original classification, when he was just 16, came with a clause stating that he would need to be reevaluated after his 18th birthday.<\/p>\n

He was reexamined by two independent classification boards, both of which saw the disabilities on land, but felt that they were not severe enough to have a significant impact in the water. But according to Silverman, it was not a blind reevaluation.<\/p>\n

“After the first board classed me out, a second board was called in. They knew that the first group had classed me out.” While he acknowledges that reclassification happens in the Paralympics, he finds it hard to believe that they can consider him no longer disabled when it is a medical fact that cerebral palsy is not only incurable, but actually gets more severe as an individual ages. Silverman is, understandably, disappointed that he will no longer be able to represent his country in the way he best knows how.<\/p>\n

\"i.silverman<\/a>

Ian Silverman has his leg casted in an attempt to lengthen his muscles. Photo Courtesy: Ian Silverman<\/p><\/div>\n

Not the Only One<\/h2>\n

In the past year, Silverman is not the only Paralympic athlete to have been classed up or out of the Paralympic Games completely, nor is he the only American. Notably, swimmers\u00a0Victoria Arlen, Justin Zook,\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Mallory Weggemann\u00a0<\/strong>have been classed up just days before major competitions<\/a>, effectively changing the way in which they approach their events. Being classed up or reclassified is not the same as aging up into a different age division for able-bodied swimmers. Being classed up or down completely changes the make-up of the field of competition. Athletes train to specifically compete in one division and a last minute change can be devastating.<\/p>\n

Athletes are able to appeal the decisions, but only on the basis of a procedural error. In each of the Americans’ cases above, appeals were denied. According to Spence, there are no official records of how many athletes have been classed out of para-sports.<\/p>\n

Coaches are also receiving heat for protesting the reclassification of athletes. Brian Loeffler<\/strong>, head coach of Loyola University, was recently fired from his position as head coach of Para Pan Ams and Para Can Ams with regards to a series of tweets he wrote in response to the reclassification of a number of swimmers, notably Australian phenom, 13-year-old Madison Elliot<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Loeffler currently coaches\u00a0Jessica Long, Brad Snyder, Courtney Jordan, Alyssia Gilliamis,\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0McKenzie Cohen.<\/strong> All five of these swimmers compete at the Worlds and Loeffler was the coach responsible for all 11 golds for Team USA at Worlds.<\/p>\n

Recently, there have also been reports of athletes working the classification system to their advantage: performing below their usual effort in an attempt to be classed down and thus, giving them an advantage over their competition. In any case, the classification process in its current iteration could to be in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

What Can Change?<\/h2>\n
\"Sep<\/a>

Photo Courtesy: Paul Cunningham-USA TODAY Sports<\/p><\/div>\n

Like anything that succeeds, the Paralympic classification needs to evolve to the times. Spence explained that the IPC is planning an overhaul of the current classification system to be implemented in the next few years. For Silverman, whose career in para-swimming seems to have come to an abrupt end, the main concern is having classifiers who have a formal medical background.<\/p>\n

“The only qualification you need to be a classifier is to take an online course through the IPC and pay a fee,” Silverman says. “You need no medical background. Even though there are classifiers that are very good at classifying athletes, it is a conflict of interest when you have parents and coaches classifying athletes.”<\/p>\n

Silverman explains that one person raising his or her voice is good, but not enough.<\/p>\n

“We need nations, not just people, to speak up when they see something that is not right. The IPC states that only a nation can protest an athlete and even if you have everyone saying this athlete is classified wrong, you still need a national organization body and take action. They rarely do because they don’t want to put their own athletes at risk,” he says.<\/p>\n

For now, Silverman is recovering from a recent foot reconstruction and looking forward to being back in the water when the cast comes off.<\/p>\n

The Paralympics and the IPC are incredibly important organizations in the world of athletics, but it sits in a more difficult position than the IOC simply because of the classification process.<\/p>\n

It is a daunting task to correctly classify athletes into respective classes and mistakes can happen. Maybe a mistake has occurred, but maybe there hasn’t been an mistake made. Regardless, the IPC is dedicated to the integrity of the competition and to the athletes that, because of the organization, have an easier time doing things the hard way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Lloyd, Swimming World College Intern Day in and day out, as thousands and thousands of swimmers churn out countless numbers of yards–a physical feat in itself–there are thousands<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":103481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17,10],"tags":[53129,53122,35171,51624,53121,53128,51827,53118,29287,31890,12113,24852,53125,51637,53126,28288,53127,6302,53120,12114,53123,51489,24693,53119,142,7841,53124],"class_list":["post-145261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-commentary","category-world","tag-alyssia-gilliamis","tag-amputations","tag-brad-snyder","tag-brian-loeffler","tag-cerebral-palsy","tag-courtney-jordan","tag-craig-spence","tag-disability-sport-classification","tag-disabled-sports","tag-ian-silverman","tag-international-paralympic-committee","tag-jessica-long","tag-justin-zook","tag-loyola-university","tag-madison-elliot","tag-mallory-weggemann","tag-mckenzie-cohen","tag-michael-phelps","tag-national-paralympic-committee","tag-paralympic-games","tag-paraplegia","tag-sarah-lloyd","tag-sports","tag-summer-paralympic-games","tag-swimming","tag-the-paralympic","tag-victoria-arlen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nClassed Out: A Quest to Understand the IPC<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In March of 2015, Paralympic gold medalist Ian Silverman was classed out. 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