Who Is Competing at the Elite Level? Exploring Impairment, Gender, and Nationality of International Blind and Partially Sighted Footballers.

IF 1.7 3区医学 Q2 REHABILITATION

Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly Pub Date : 2025-03-06 DOI:10.1123/apaq.2024-0101

Harrison K Leivers, Peter M Allen, Matthew A Timmis, Oliver R Runswick

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Classification in para sports aims to create equitable competition. Footballers with vision impairments are allocated to one of three classes (B1, B2, or B3). This work aimed to understand the effectiveness and inclusivity of the current classification system. Visual acuity (VA) and/or visual field of male and female international footballers was extracted anonymously via the International Blind Sports Federation classification database. The analysis included 562 individuals. Footballers were predominantly male (88.26%); 11.74% were female. Only VA was used to classify 99.11% of footballers, and only 4.50% had visual field included in their classification. VA was nonnormally distributed for all three classes. Only 2.84% of footballers had a VA between 2.10 and 2.60 logMAR, suggesting that VAs in this range and/or visual-field impairment may disproportionately impact performance compared with other footballers within their classes. The current classification system does not appear to be inclusive or create equitable competition.

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来源期刊

Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly 医学-康复医学

CiteScore

3.00

自引率

10.50%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： APAQ is an international, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal designed to stimulate and communicate scholarly inquiry relating to physical activity that is adapted in order to enable and enhance performance and participation in people with disability. Physical activity implies fine, gross, functional, and interpretive movement including physical education, recreation, exercise, sport, and dance. The focus of adaptation may be the activity or task that is to be performed, environment and facilities, equipment, instructional methodology, and/or rules governing the performance setting. Among the populations considered are persons with motor, intellectual, sensory, and mental or other disabilities across the life span. Disciplines from which scholarship to this aim may originate include, but are not limited to, physical education, teacher preparation, human development, motor behavior and learning, biomechanics, exercise and sport physiology, and exercise and sport psychology. Scientific inquiry may originate from quantitative or qualitative inquiry, as well as from multimethod designs.