With the London 2012 Olympics now over, we focus on the Paralympic Games which is proving to be more popular than ever expected with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) confirming that a record 2.1 million Paralympic tickets were sold 3 weeks before the start of the event!

With more interest there also seems to be a want for a better understanding on how the classification system works.

Classification is a unique element of Paralympic sports, intended to ensure fair competition. As each sport at the Paralympic Games requires different skills and competencies, the impact of impairment on the performance of the athletes varies. That’s why each sport has its own unique classification rules.

We will of course be following the 4 wheelchair events including wheelchair basketball - a personal favourite, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby and finally wheelchair tennis, which has grown massively since 1976 when it was started by Brad Parks.

Wheelchair tennis has proven so popular by both competitors and spectators alike that it has grown at an amazing rate: now fully integrated into all four Grand Slam Tennis events, and with more than 170 tournaments on the ITF’s own Wheelchair Tennis Tour, it is more popular than ever.

Wheelchair basketball was developed by American World War II veterans as part of their rehabilitation programme, but its popularity soon spread around the world and is enjoyed widely by television audiences around the world as it provides some pretty seriously competitive action at a dazzling speed.

We hope you ll get the chance to enjoy your share of these fantastic paralympics.