Athletes with intellectual disabilities rise at the Paris 2024 Paralympics

For athletes with intellectual disabilities, classification is a vital component to their journey to the global stage enabling them to compete on an even playing field and achieve success.

A leading expert in the development of these systems is Professor Jan Burns, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University. Professor Burns has played a pivotal role in shaping the classification processes to develop these pathways for athletes with intellectual disabilities.

The system developed by Professor Burns and her team of international psychologists has opened doors for thousands of athletes with intellectual disabilities. Today, more than 6,000 athletes compete on the international stage, with hundreds of thousands more competing at a national level.

Through her work with Virtus (the International Federation for Para Athletes with Intellectual Impairments) and now as the Chair of the Classification Oversight and Compliance Committee with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC)the organisations supporting these athletes have also grown in strength and number with over 90 nations involved in elite sport through Virtus.

At the Paris 2024 Paralympics, 161 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 42 nations around the world, are competing in Swimming, Athletics, and Table Tennis, inspiring people with similar disabilities and their families around the world.

These athletes are appearing in the media headlines alongside and equal to all other athletes, becoming national heroes and extending their careers as international athletes. In the 2024 games we have seen the first Indian athlete with intellectual disabilities, Deepthi Jeevanji, compete and take home a bronze medal, inspiring a new nation to become involved. For GB two athletes with intellectual disabilities, Poppy Maskill and William Ellard, brought home the first medals of the Games in swimming, and have gone on to win seven medals between them, including four gold. Other records have been broken with Yovanni Phillipe from Mauritius bringing home the first medal ever for his nation.

Behind these impressive achievements lies extensive work to open these Paralympic pathways for athletes with intellectual disabilities, ensuring these athletes are properly classified and eligible to compete in the correct categories.

“Classification is the bedrock of Paralympic sport and can be a complex and emotive issue for athletes,” Professor Burns explained.

“It is vital that eligibility and classification processes have integrity and reliability but are also open and transparent.

Many International Sports Federations are now recognising the significance of the full inclusion of this group of athletes in their events calendar and are working with the team to develop classification systems for their full inclusion, including the Equestrian and Taekwondo International Federations.

Professor Burns added: “These are very exciting times for our athletes not only on the field of play but also around the Paralympic sites. It’s been a pleasure to see two of our Paralympic athletes, Jessica-Jane Applegate MBE from GB and Lenine Cunha from Portugal join our Virtus media team at the games and be roving reporters providing all the up-to-date news and interviews with medallist from the Games. Lenine, a gold medallist in athletics is even standing to become the first athlete with intellectual disabilities on the Paralympic Athlete’s council – we wish him success!”

Jessica-Jane Applegate MBE, spoke about her involvement with the project. “Years ago, the Paralympic Games were just for people with physical disabilities, and I think that is why people still struggle to understand a disability that they can’t see, or which is invisible in nature,” she said. “Together with Virtus I am here to raise awareness of intellectual impairment and make this invisible impairment visible to people.”

Prof Jan Burns is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University, Board member and Head of Eligibility for Virtus and Chair of the International Paralympic Classification Oversight and Compliance Committee.