Integration is vital to the growth and development of any Para sport. The beauty of all disciplines of ParaVolley is that at the grassroots levels they are all fully integrated, which means that athletes with and without physical impairments can compete alongside one another on an equal court.
This means that at the national level and below, anyone can play, regardless of age, ability, or gender.
In order to compete at the international level – at Zonal or World Championships, or at the Paralympic Games, for example – an athlete must have a physical impairment and must go through the process of Classification prior to participating.
Classification is a process that assesses athletes’ physical impairments and places them in a group, or ‘sport class’, according to their medical evaluation and their physical and functional ability to perform the actions of volleyball. A team of internationally trained and certified Classifiers is responsible for managing the classification process.
The sport classes for Sitting Volleyball are: VS2 – Minimal Disability (most physically able), and VS1 – Disabled (least physically able).
The sport classes for Standing Volleyball are: A (most physically able), B, and C (least physically able).