Paratriathlon Race Performance in Elite Ambulatory Athletes With Physical Impairments.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare overall performance and performance within the individual disciplines (e.g., swim) in elite paratriathlon between the ambulatory classes PTS2-5 in men and women. Data were acquired from the official results of 31 International paratriathlon competitions between 2018 and 2021. A total of 1094 results (men n = 774; women n = 320) were analyzed. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare overall performance time, absolute time spent in each discipline, and percentage of performance time spent in each discipline between sports classes. Pearson's correlation between segment times and overall times were explored. Overall time was significantly quicker in PTS5 than PTS4 and PTS3 ( P < 0.05), and between PTS4 and PTS3 ( P < 0.05), but no differences were found between PTS3 and PTS2. PTS5 was also quicker than PTS4 and PTS3 ( P < 0.05) across most of the individual discipline times. Cycling comprised the highest percentage of race time in all classes (47.1%-49.6%) and was strongly correlated to overall performance ( r = 0.72-0.91). Hierarchy in performance times was demonstrated between the less impaired paratriathlon classes, but not between the most impaired PTS2 and PTS3 classes. It may be appropriate for PTS2 and PTS3 to compete together.