The ICF is pleased to publish the provisional “Upper Limb Illustrated Guide to Classification” document.

The document is to be used at the national level to expand national paracanoe activities to include upper limb impairments.  Currently, paracanoe athlete classification only includes lower limb and trunk impairments.  The long-term goal of the ICF paracanoe team is to expand athlete opportunities by including upper limb impairments within the IPC approved athlete classification framework. 

To accomplish this goal, the National Federations need to develop a population of athletes with upper limb impairments so there will be a sufficient number of athletes which would be included in an evidence-informed scientific study.  The study intent would be to design a fair and equitable athlete classification system which would be wholistically inclusive of upper limb impairments within the current system.  

Given the current approval process and dependent upon the number of athletes to be recruited for a study, the goal would be to have an inclusive IPC-approved lower limb, trunk and upper limb athlete classification system in place beginning in late 2028.

A special thanks goes out to all the contributors of the provisional system and especially to Julie Gray (GBR) for her leadership & coordination. The document can be found here.