Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, amputees, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and partially sighted. Athletes are classified in accordance with the nature and severity of their disability or combinations of disabilities. Like running, it can take place on a track or as a road race. The main competitions take place at the Summer Paralympics which wheelchair racing and athletics has been a part of since 1960. Competitors compete in specialized wheelchairs which allow the athletes to reach speeds of 30 km/h (18.6 mph) or more. It is one of the most prominent forms of Paralympic athletics.
Athletics has been contested at every Summer Paralympics since the first games in 1960. Men and women from all disability groups compete in the sport.
Louise Ellery is an Australian Paralympic track and field athlete, Commonwealth Games gold medalist and former world record holder in F32 Shot put for elite athletes with a disability. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, she won a bronze medal.
The 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships was held in Christchurch, New Zealand from January 21 to 30, 2011. Athletes with a disability competed, and the Championships was a qualifying event for the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
The World Para Athletics Championships, known as the IPC Athletics World Championships prior to 2017, are a biennial Paralympic athletics event organized by World Para Athletics, a subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). It features athletics events contested by athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities. The first IPC Athletics World Championships were held in Berlin, Germany in 1994.
T35 is a disability sport classification for disability athletics' running competitions. It includes people who have coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis. This includes people with cerebral palsy. The classification is used at the Paralympic Games. The corresponding F35 classification includes club and discus throw, shot put, and javelin.
Lindsay Sutton is an Australian track and field athlete who represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics.
Brydee Moore is an Australian athlete with cerebral palsy that competes in the shot put, discus and javelin. She won a silver medal at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in athletics.
Gemma Louise Prescott is a British Paralympian track and field athlete competing in F32 throwing events. Prescott represented England in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, taking the bronze medal in the SP shot put. She has represented the Great Britain team twice in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing and the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.
The 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships was the biggest track and field competition for athletes with a disability since the 2012 Summer Paralympics. It was held in Lyon, France, and lasted from 20 to 28 July. Around 1,100 athletes competed, from 94 different countries. The event was held in the Stade du Rhône located at the Parc de Parilly in Vénissieux, in Lyon Metropolis.
The 2012 IPC Athletics European Championships was a track and field competition for athletes with a disability open to International Paralympic Committee (IPC) affiliated countries within Europe. It was held in Stadskanaal, Netherlands and lasted from 23 to 28 June. The event was held in the Stadskanaal Stadium and was the last major European disability athletics event before the forthcoming 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. Approximately 550 athletes from 38 countries attended the games. Several countries used the Championships to finalise the remaining places for the Paralympics.
Birgit Kober is a German Paralympic athlete. She initially competed in F34 seated throwing events, and from 2011-2013 she became the reigning champion at European, World and Paralympic level in both shot put and javelin in her class. At the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London, she broke the world record in both her events. Following changes to the IPC rules for seated throws in 2014, she chose to compete in a standing position as an F36 athlete. She won the F36 shot put at the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games with a Paralympic record throw. As of April 2017 she is World Record holder in the Women's F36 shot put, a distance of 11.52 m set in July 2016.
Deepa Malik is an Indian athlete. She started her career at the age of 30. She is the first Indian woman to win a medal in Paralympic Games and won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in shot put. She also won gold in the F-53/54 Javelin event at the para athletic Grand Prix held in Dubai in 2018. She is currently the world number one in the F-53 category. She has won accolades for her participation in various adventure sports. She is associated with Himalayan Motorsports Association (H.M.A.) and Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (F.M.S.C.I.). She has undertaken an 8-day, 1,700-km drive in sub-zero temperatures which included a climb to 18,000 feet (5,500 m). It was – Raid De Himalaya. This journey covers many difficult paths including remote Himalayas, Leh, Shimla and Jammu.
Joanna Shuni Butterfield, is a British parasport athlete who competes in the F51 club and discus throw. In 2014 Butterfield set a European record in the club while winning the event at the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships. The following year she added the World title at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Qatar, securing a place at the 2016 Paralympic Games.
Mounia Gasmi is a Paralympian athlete from Algeria competing mainly in F32 classification throwing events.
The 2017 World Para Athletics Championships were a Paralympic track and field meet organized by World Para Athletics, a subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee. It was held at London Stadium in London from 14 to 23 July 2017. It was the 8th edition of the event, the first to be held after being renamed from IPC Athletics World Championship, and featured 213 medal events.
Asmahan Boudjadar is an Algerian athlete competing in the shot put and javelin. She won the gold medal in the F33 shot put at the 2016 Summer Paralympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Samar Ben Koelleb is a Tunisian athlete who competes in both shot put and discus for her country. She won the silver medal in the women's F41 shot put at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, and bronze medals in both sports at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships.
Ekta Bhyan is a para athlete who represents India in the Women's club and discus throw events. She represented the country in the 2018 Asian Para Games held at Jakarta, Indonesia and won gold medal in the Club throw event. She qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, following her second consecutive appearance in the World Para Athletics Championship. She has also competed and won medals in several IPC Grand Prix held at Berlin in 2016, Dubai in 2017 and Tunisia in 2018.
