section_path: Categories/Athletes with disabilities
section_name: Athletes with disabilities
paragraph_text: Athletes with disabilities
  
  Athletes with physical disabilities have competed at separate international events since 1952. The International Paralympic Committee governs the competitions in athletics, and hosts the Paralympic Games, which have continued since 1960.
  
  Competitors at elite level competitions, are classified by disability, to arrange athletes with a similar disability in the same event. A classified T12 athlete for example, is a track athlete with a visual impairment.
  
  Operating independently of the Paralympic movement, deaf athletes have a long-established tradition of organised athletics, with the first major world competition being included at the 1924 Deaflympics. The primary impediments to the inclusion of deaf athletes in mainstream athletics are sound based elements of the sport, such as the starter's pistol. This can be a disadvantage even in Paralympic sport, as shown in by the example of Olivia Breen who failed to hear a false start in a cerebral palsy class race at the 2012 Paralympics.
  
  In wheelchair racing athletes compete in lightweight racing chairs. Most major marathons have wheelchair divisions and the elite racers consistently beat the runners on foot. The speed of wheel chair racers has caused difficulties for race organisers in properly staggering their start times compared to runners. A collision between Josh Cassidy (a wheelchair racer) and Tiki Gelana (a leading female marathoner) at the 2013 London Marathon brought the issue into the spotlight again.
  
  Occasionally, athletes with a disability reach a level at which they can compete against able-bodied athletes. Legally blind Marla Runyan ran in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and won a gold medal in the 1500 metres at the 1999 Pan American Games. Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee, was a semi-finalist at the 2011 World Championships and won a silver medal as part of South Africa's 4 × 400 metres relay team. In masters athletics it is far more common to make an accommodation for athletes with a disability. Blind Ivy Granstrom set numerous Masters world records while being guided around the track.
  
  The disability categories have caused dispute among athletes, with some athletes being accused of exaggerating their level of disability in order to compete in less challenging categories. Athletes with intellectual disabilities were banned from competition in all Paralympic sports in response to verification issues and cheating at the 2000 Summer Paralympics and the intellectual disability athletics programme was only restored twelve years later at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.