The Paracanoe community is bringing the 'Paracanoe Ergometer Challenge' to the para-athletes.

Paracanoe recreational and elite athletes can measure themself on the distance of 500 meters on ergometer, and share with the community. 

Click on the picture to go the the Parcanoe Ergometer Challenge webpage: https://www.canoeicf.com/paracanoe-ergometer-challenge

• The updated Paralympic Games qualification system can be found here.

• 2020 Paralympic Games are POSTPONED - The IPC Press Release can be found here.

• 2020 Paracanoe World Championships: POSTPONED. More information on the Press Release.

• Asia Paracanoe Championships (Thailand, 20-25 March) - CANCELLED

The ICF Paracanoe is running a serie of webinar to help the countries with basic knowledge and tools to assist them in developing paracanoe in their region and to help with athlete classification.

The presentations of the Paracanoe webinar in Portuguese language, presented on 20 May 2020 are available below:

• Introdução_Paracanoagem, Presented by Ivo Quendera from Portugal
• Paracanoagem - Introdução à Classificação, presented by Fatima Fernandez - ICF Paracanoe Head of Classification

The presentations of the Paracanoe webinar for COPAC countries, presented in Spanish on 29 April 2020 are available below:

• Introducción del Paracanotaje, presented by Monica Hernandez from Chile
• Introducción de la Clasificación, presented by Dr. Raul Smith Plaza from Chile
• Por qué apostar por el paracanotage, presented by Ismael Uali from Spain

The video of the webinar is available on the Planet Canoe Youtube Channel. 

 The presentations of the Paracanoe webinar, presented in English in 2019, to some targeted countries in Africa and Oceania are available here:

• Paracanoe introduction, presented by Jean-Christophe Gonneaud - ICF Paracanoe Committee member
• Paracanoe - Classification introduction, presented by Fatima Fernandez - ICF Paracanoe Head of Classification

Information concerning the Paralympics:

• Information for Para athletes and IPC members regarding coronavirus
• Freight Support Plan
• Tokyo 2020 Athlete Sponsorship and Advertising Guidelines
• Updated qualification criteria

• 2020 Paracanoe Bulletin
  

• Latest information - classification, development and more
• Paracanoe Committee
• Classification Committee
• Paracanoe Rules
• Competition information and results
• Development of Paracanoe & other resources

• Athletes classification master list

• Classification Upload Platform
• ICF Classification Rules and Regulations for Paracanoe
• More resources on Classification (including forms and manuals)

What is Paracanoe?

Paracanoe is the canoeing discipline for athletes with an impairment and races are contested by two types of boat, kayak (K) and va’a (V). The kayak is propelled by a double-blade paddle, while the va’a is an outrigger canoe which has an ama (second pontoon) as a support float and is used with a single-blade paddle. Both kayak and va’a have three different classes of event for men and women, depending on the classification of an athlete’s impairment, with KL1, KL2 and KL3 for kayak and VL1, VL2 and VL3 for va’a. At international level all paracanoe races are individual events and competed at a distance of 200m.

Paracanoe began as an initiative by the International Canoe Federation (ICF) to allow athletes with an impairment to compete in the sport. The discipline featured with exhibition status under the name paddleability at the 2009 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Dartmouth, NS, Canada, and was given official status as paracanoe at the following year’s edition in Poznan, Poland. Later in 2010, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced at a meeting in Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China, that paracanoe would make its debut at the Paralympic Games in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. There were six medal events at the Games (three men, three women), all in the kayak category.

In 2020 in Tokyo Va'a will make its Paralympic debut, with three medal events - two for men, one for women - taking to nine races overall on the paracanoe programme.