PARA-BADMINTON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: THE ATHLETES CHARACTERIZATION

Abstract

For the effective participation of all (people with physical disabilities) in Para-Badminton
(PBd), there are some adjustments: to decrease the playing court and the additional
equipment (wheelchair, crutches and prostheses). The rules are the same as conventional
Badminton, governed by Badminton World Federation (BWF). Because of the expansion
of PBd in the world and the insertion of the sport in 2020 Paralympic Games, the main
objective of this research is to characterize the athletes participating in the 9th PBd World
Championship, held from 5th to 10th November 2013, in Dortmund, Germany. The sample
for this descriptive study with cross-sectional design was: n = 228 athletes, representing 36
countries from five continents, n = 190 (84%) male and n = 38 (16%) female. The age
athletes average was 34.7 years old (± 12). The practice time average was 7 years (± 5.1). Among the six categories of the competition the highest share was in class SL3 n = 51
(22.4%), followed by WH1 with n = 49 (21.5%), SL4 with n = 38 (16.7%), SU5 with n =
37 (16.2%), WH2 with n = 34 (14.9%) and SS6 category n = 19 (8.3%).