Australian Paralympic Committee

The Australian Paralympic Team
The APC is solely responsible for selecting, assembling and managing the Australian Paralympic Summer and Winter Teams for the Paralympic Games.

The 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games Team of 435 was Australia’s largest ever. In 2004 Australia sent its largest “away” team - 152 athletes and 87 staff - to Athens. The APC will send a team of up to 290 people to Beijing in 2008.

The Australian Paralympic Winter Team is much smaller than the Summer Games Team. In 2006, the Australian Team for Torino comprised 20 athletes and staff.

Upcoming games:

Vancouver 2010

London 2012

Sochi 2014
______________________________

Paralympic Preparation Program
Since 1994 the APC has received funding from the Federal Government for the preparation of the Australian Paralympic Team. The Paralympic Preparation Program (PPP) assists Australian athletes with a disability to prepare for the Paralympic Games by providing funding and other support for coaching, training and equipment, travel and competition in the period leading up to the Games.

The PPP for most sports is managed by the relevant sport-specific national sporting organisation (NSO) under its high performance program. The APC oversees these programs through a joint management committee with the NSO under the APC's integration policy of "mainstreaming”. The APC currently funds programs in 13 summer sports and two winter Paralympic disciplines.
______________________________

Classification program
Classification is one of the cornerstones of Paralympic and disability sport. Each Paralympic sport has its own classification system which aims to divide athletes into classes with other athletes of similar physical function in relation to that sport, to allow fair and manageable competition. The APC has created a National Classification strategy to assist the classification of athletes across sports and states, with a pathway to help identify, train and certify classifiers in Australia.