By Zachary Dickson
In the December 2024 issue of Sport Quarterly, we examined the growth of Parasport in Nova Scotia the past few years and the work being done to develop a Parasport strategy to support our partners in continuing to grow and strengthen the Parasport system in Nova Scotia. Since then, work has continued to progress and some early initiatives from the strategy are starting to be implemented across the province. One of these initiatives is the new Individual Para Athlete Classification Assistance Program.
Classification is the system in Parasport used to determine athlete eligibility and how athletes are grouped together with those of similar abilities for competition. This, to a certain extent, is much like how athletes are grouped by age, gender or weight in other sports. Each Parasport has its own classification criteria, varying in the number of sport classes offered and eligible impairments, and classification is sport-specific given the different activities, movements and skills required.
This means that for Para athletes to compete at the national or international level, they generally must go through a formal classification process involving standardized tests, technical assessments and in competition observations conducted by a panel of medical and technical experts, which typically only occur in a single location nationally or even globally each year. This means that prospective high performance Para athletes are required to travel long distances in order to be classified, which is an additional hurdle not faced by able-bodied athletes.
Sport Nova Scotia, in partnership with the Canadian Sport Institute Atlantic and Support4Sport, have a robust Athlete Assistance Program available for high performance athletes who have demonstrated the ability to excel at the national or international level. With that being said, one of the challenges for high performance Para athletes is that in order to achieve results that would qualify them for Athlete Assistance, they would more often than not be required to travel outside of Nova Scotia, and even outside of Canada, in order to be classified first. Whereas an able-bodied athlete could generally achieve results to qualify for Athlete Assistance without the same level of travel and cost.
This is where the new Individual Para Athlete Classification Assistance Program can help. With this new program, if a Para athlete is required to travel outside of Nova Scotia to be classified, they could be eligible to receive funding support through this new program to subsidize their travel to be classified. This should help reduce the financial barrier for Para athletes to pursue Paralympic ambitions by filling a gap between community and provincial level sport, which is supported through Sport Nova Scotia’s Parasport Loan Program and EDIA funding, and national level competition, which is supported through the Athlete Assistance Program.
Though this is just one small step that has come out of the Parasport strategy, it has already been positively received in the few short months it has been offered with a number of recipients across a variety of Parasports. As we continue to develop more supports at all levels of the sport system to support Nova Scotian Parasport athletes, we strive toward bringing true equity to Parasport in Nova Scotia.
To learn more about the Individual Para Athlete Classification Program and other supports available, visit sportnovascotia.ca/funding-programs-and-eligibility or email parasport@sportnovascotia.ca
