If you watched para alpine skiing at a previous Winter Paralympics, you may have noticed that some athletes race in a sit-ski while others stand, and that each group has a separate result. You may have also noticed letters and numbers next to athletes' names: LW5/7, B2, SB-LL1.

These aren't arbitrary codes. There's a real system behind them, and once you understand it, the sport starts to open up in a completely different way.

What Classification Is For

The goal of classification is to minimize how much an impairment affects an athlete's performance in a specific sport, so that athletic ability determines the winner.

That is a narrower purpose than it might seem. Classification is not a ranking of how disabled an athlete is. It is not a measure of how their condition affects their daily life. It is only about the impact of a specific physical difference on a specific sport.

Here's the distinction: a sprinter with an above-the-knee amputation and a sprinter with a below-the-knee amputation experience the same event differently because the biomechanics of running change at each level of limb loss. Classification accounts for that difference.

The analogy that clicks for most people is weight classes in boxing. Weight doesn't determine who is the better fighter overall. It creates a fair contest for a specific type of competition. Classification does the same thing, applied to physical function.

Who Sets the Standards

Each sport runs its own classification system. Para biathlon handles things differently than para alpine skiing. The IPC sets overall guidelines, but the sport-specific federations own the categories.

To be eligible, an athlete must meet a Minimum Impairment Criterion, which is the threshold at which a disability affects performance enough to put someone at a disadvantage against non-disabled competitors. Athletes who don't meet it compete in able-bodied sport.

One thing that surprises people: the same athlete can carry different classifications in different sports, because different sports make different physical demands on the same body.

Classification in Each of the Six Sports

Para Alpine Skiing

Three broad categories. Standing athletes have a physical impairment and ski upright; their LW codes reflect the type and degree of impairment. Sitting athletes use a monoski, a seat mounted on a single ski that turns on the hill like any other ski. Visually impaired athletes race with a sighted guide who skis just ahead, calling every turn: B1 means no functional vision, B2 and B3 are progressively greater levels of remaining sight.

The guide relationship in visually impaired alpine is one of the most underrated partnerships in the Games. That guide is also trusting their athlete, committing to the same speeds on the same course.

Para Biathlon and Para Cross-Country Skiing

These share 15 categories: three for visually impaired athletes with guides, nine for standing athletes, and three for sitting athletes. In para biathlon, sitting athletes use a rifle mounted on a frame rather than shouldered, which changes the mechanics of shooting entirely. When you see someone fire 20 clean shots under race pressure in that position, you're watching something genuinely difficult.

Para Snowboard

Three classes based on functional ability: SB-LL1 for greater lower-limb impairment, SB-LL2 for lesser lower-limb impairment, and SB-UL for upper-limb impairment. The LL1/LL2 split was introduced in 2018 to better separate athletes whose impairments were creating very unequal competition within a single class.

Para Ice Hockey

One class. All athletes have a physical disability affecting the lower body and sit on sledges fitted with two blades that sit low enough for the puck to pass underneath. Each player uses two sticks: one spiked end for pushing off the ice, one bladed end for puck handling. Eight teams compete at Milano Cortina 2026: Italy, Canada, China, Czechia, Germany, Japan, Slovakia, and the USA.

Wheelchair Curling

Athletes must have a permanent lower-limb disability that requires them to use a wheelchair in their daily lives. Cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis qualify if the athlete uses a wheelchair. No sub-classifications within the sport. At Milano Cortina 2026, the sport adds a mixed doubles event for the first time in Paralympic history.

How Athletes Get Classified

Athletes submit medical documentation, and trained classifiers assess functional ability through direct observation, sometimes including observation during competition. Classification can be provisional or confirmed, and it can change if an athlete's condition changes over time.

The classifiers are looking specifically at how an impairment interacts with that sport's demands. A disability that matters greatly in alpine skiing might affect cross-country skiing very differently. The classification follows the sport, not just the diagnosis.

What This Means When You Watch

When you see multiple result tables for the same alpine event, each table is a separate class racing the same course, judged on its own rankings. Gold medals are awarded in each class.

In biathlon and cross-country skiing, the sitting, standing, and visually impaired results are reported separately. The athletes share the same course at the same time, but their times only compete within their own class.

Once the codes start to click, they become informative rather than confusing. B2 tells you an athlete has partial vision and is racing with a guide. SB-LL1 tells you a snowboarder is navigating significant lower-limb impairment. LW10-12 tells you an alpine skier is in a sit-ski. Each code is a shorthand for the physical reality an athlete is working within and what they've built on top of it.

Following the classification system is one of the more rewarding parts of watching the Paralympics closely. It reframes what you're seeing from results to stories.

For a closer look at how each of the six sports works, see Winter Paralympic Sports Explained.