A Comparative Analysis Study on Para Athletics’ Track Discipline Change and Performance Trend in the Paralympic Games (2004–2020)

Abstract

The Paralympics is a world-class sports event that inspires and impresses people around the world, of which athletics is the most medal-competitive event in the Paralympics, with more than 130 countries participating. This study aims to provide baseline data for disabled athletes’ (para athletes’) athletic performance improvement on track, by generating information on athletic performance trends through the identification of para athletics’ discipline change in each Paralympic Games (PG) held between 2004 and 2020, and by analyzing differences in records by discipline level (podium group [winners’ group] and final group [group reaching finals]). To achieve its purpose, this study collected data and analyzed athletics’ track events at five Paralympic Games (2004 Athens PG to 2020 Tokyo PG) organized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and checked changes in disciplines. To analyze athletic performance differences between the podium group and the final group by dividing the disciplines in disabled athletes’ track events in the PG that were consecutively held into men’s division and women’s division, this study used Kruskal–Wallis Test, a nonparametric statistical method. Additionally, this study presented the drawn event record trends of the podium group by discipline in each class through visualization. The results drawn through this study are as follows: First, as a result of analyzing the change in disciplines of disabled athletes’ track events, the number of track disciplines in the 5 PG was Track (T) 61, T51, T52, T48, and T44, respectively. Disciplines in the men’s division showed a gradually decreasing trend. In the women’s division, the track disciplines in the 5 PG were T30, T33, T37, T40, and T36, respectively. The disciplines in the women’s division increased until the Rio 2016 PG. Second, according to an analysis of athletic performance by class of para athletes’ track disciplines by PG (2004–2020), significant differences were found in both the podium and final groups. Third, as a result of analyzing the podium group’s record change trends by para athletes’ track disciplines and classes, the following points were revealed: (1) in the mean record change in the men’s podium group records were improving in most classes; (2) according to the women’s podium group record trend analysis the record improvement was high in T37 and T53 classes. In the T11 and T12 classes improved in each PG. In conclusion, as the PG continued, the number of track events in the men’s division of para athlete disciplines decreased, but records show an improving trend. Meanwhile, the number of disciplines shows an increasing trend in the women’s division, and especially the trend was remarkable after 2012. In conclusion, as Paralympic Games continued, the number of disciplines declined in the men’s division but records show an improving trend. As the number of disciplines decreased, athletes went to other disciplines, so competition became fierce and competitiveness was judged to improve. Meanwhile, in the disciplines of the women’s division increased due to the increasing number of in disciplines available.