Evolution of classification

One feature of early functional systems was that they comprised fewer classes than the existing medical systems. Event organisers favoured this because the complexity of event organisation was significantly reduced.

In 1988, a successful Paralympic Games were hosted in Seoul, Korea. The event was attended by observers of the 1992 Games organisers from Barcelona. They committed to host the Paralympic Games in the weeks after the Olympic Games but did not want to engage themselves to an extensive programme with so many medal events.

Consequently, in 1989, the bodies responsible for organising the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games signed an agreement which stipulated that all Paralympic sports contested at the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games were to be conducted using sports-specific functional classification systems. This administrative decision greatly accelerated the transition to functional classification systems.