Mac Russell loves coastal rowing.
He says it offers a level of unpredictability that you just don't get on flat water.
The size of the swell, the sun reflected off the waves, the morphing ocean floor — it all combines to make each race unique.
But he also loves it for the pathway it provides him.
For much of the last decade, Russell has been one of the world's leading flat-water rowers with an intellectual impairment.
However, opportunities for elite international competition have been limited.
Currently, neither the Paralympics nor the World Rowing Championships include events for athletes with an intellectual impairment.
So, when the Beach Sprint World Rowing Championships added an event in which he could compete, Russell jumped at the chance.
Mac Russell has competed at two World Rowing Beach Sprint World Championships. (Supplied: Sport Inclusion Australia)
Despite the continued growth of para sports, athletes with an intellectual impairment (II) remain under-represented at an elite level.
Only three of 22 sports at this year's Paralympics included events for II athletes, and despite it being an umbrella category, there was only one class in which athletes could compete.
But a clamber for increased Games representation, the development of new sports classes and the continued growth of Paralympic alternatives suggest elite sport may be slowly learning to embrace athletes with an intellectual impairment.
What is intellectual impairment at the Paralympic Games?
At the Paris Paralympics, swimming, athletics and table tennis offered events for athletes with an intellectual impairment.
And in those three sports, only one class was open to II athletes.
This contrasted with events for competitors with physical and vision impairments.
In swimming, for instance, there were 10 separate classes for athletes with physical impairments and three for vision impaired athletes, all based upon the functional impact of an individual's impairment.
This means that even in the three sports open to athletes with intellectual impairment, the number of II competitors was substantially lower than athletes with a physical or vision impairment.
Australia's Ben Hance won gold in the men's 100m backstroke S14 at the Paris Paralympics — an event for swimmers with an intellectual impairment. (Getty Images: Joris Verwijst)
For the one Paralympic class in which II athletes could compete, there were three main criteria of eligibility:
- An IQ of 75 or lower
- Significant limitations in adaptive behaviour as expressed in conceptual, social and practical skills
- Onset before the age of 18
History of II events at the Paralympic Games
Events for athletes with an intellectual impairment made their Paralympic debut at Atlanta 1996.
They also appeared at Sydney 2000, but by Athens 2004, they were gone.
That's because 10 of the 12 members of the 2000 gold-medal-winning Spanish II basketball squad were revealed to be fabricating their disabilities.
This was a devastating blow for athletes with an intellectual impairment across the world, with the International Paralympic Committee suspending all their events indefinitely.
After a new system for verifying impairments was approved in 2009, intellectual impairment events in swimming, athletics and table tennis were reinstated in time for London 2012.
Although, athletes outside of those sports remained, and still remain to this day, in the Paralympic wilderness.
Australian shot-putter Todd Hodgetts won gold in the F20 intellectually impaired class at the London Paralympics. (Getty Images: Dean Mouhtaropoulos)
Von Einem 'lucky' table tennis a Paralympic sport
Sam von Einem is one of Australia's post-2012 II stars.
He made his Paralympic debut at Rio 2016, where he won his country's first Para table-tennis medal since 1984. He added a second silver at Tokyo 2020 and took bronze in Paris earlier this year.
Von Einem began his sporting journey as a promising tennis player. It wasn't until his family moved to Abu Dhabi when he was a teenager that he began playing table tennis seriously.
"Tennis was a bit less popular because it was so hot a lot of the year and we had a table tennis table at home," von Einem said.
Sam von Einem has medalled at three consecutive Paralympics. (Getty Images: Elsa)
When he learnt that Para table tennis could provide him with a Paralympic opportunity, his focus was very much on the sport.
"That pathway is a big drawcard to have, since it was only three sports," von Einem said.
"I was not going to get anywhere in swimming and probably not getting anywhere in athletics either.
"It was lucky that table tennis was the other sport that did have intellectually impaired athletes in the sport."
Paralympic alternatives
For athletes whose sports are not part of the Paralympic program, there are alternatives.
Special Olympics and Sporting Inclusion Australia are organisations that provide sporting opportunities and competition for II athletes of all ages and abilities, and the Virtus Global Games are held every four years, in the year before the Paralympics.
Virtus is the global governing body for athletes with an intellectual impairment, representing 500,000 sportspeople in close to 100 countries, including Australia.
Nick Parr, the executive director of Virtus, calls the Global Games the "pinnacle" of competition for II athletes not competing in Paralympic sports.
For non-Paralympic sports, the Virtus Global Games are the pinnacle of international competition for athletes with an intellectual impairment. (Supplied: Sport Inclusion Australia)
Twelve sports featured at the 2023 Global Games and, unlike at the Paralympics, athletes competed in three separate classes:
- II1 is the traditional classification that is used at the Paralympics
- II2 is for athletes with an intellectual impairment as well as a significant additional impairment
- II3 is for athletes with autism who do not have an intellectual disability
Elite pathways for under-served athletes
The II2 class first appeared at the 2019 edition of the Global Games, after years of Virtus research.
"It's naturally the case that when you have just one group, you're going to get a huge variation in the people that compete and some are going to have more significant impairments," Parr said.
"It's also the case that a high number of athletes with an intellectual impairment also have a second or additional impairment.
"And when you see that on the field of play, clearly, those people who have multiple impairments are going to be at a competitive disadvantage to those that just have a single intellectual impairment."
In practice, the II2 class caters to an historically under-served section of the sporting community: athletes with Down syndrome.
Despite being one of the most common genetic conditions in the world, Down syndrome is not represented at the Paralympics.
That's because, while athletes with Down syndrome are often eligible for the intellectual impairment class offered at the Paralympics, their secondary physical impairment makes qualification essentially impossible.
Currently, Parr says that as high as "nine out of 10" athletes competing in the II2 class are athletes with Down syndrome.
But II2 is not a class solely for people with Down syndrome. Like all Para sport classifications, it groups athletes by the impact their impairment (or impairments) has on their chosen sport.
As for II2 representation at the Paralympics, Parr says it is a goal of Virtus's but still "some way off."
Having made its debut at the 2023 Global Games, the II3 class, for autistic athletes, is still in its infancy.
"They don't necessarily meet the eligibility criteria for having an intellectual disability, but they will also face many obstacles and hurdles taking part in sport," Parr said.
"Even in elite sport, those athletes tell us organisations are not set up for working sufficiently to address their support needs."
Parr says that both the II2 and II3 classes have provided an elite sporting pathway for athletes who historically have not had one.
"Both groups are growing quickly, and that suggests that it's a welcome move, and I think will continue to grow for many years to come," he said.
Moving forward
Rowing is one of the sports featured at the Global Games. Across the 2019 Games in Brisbane and the 2023 edition in Vichy, Russell won a combined 12 gold medals.
Despite it being one of the fastest-growing sports on the program, Russell says there is still a lack of competition at the Global Games.
"Rowing is one of the smallest sports at the Virtus things, and I feel like if there was more opportunity and pathway, there might be more that turn up to do it and it might be more competitive there," Russell said.
As the outstanding Australian athlete at the 2023 Virtus Global Games, Mac Russell was selected to plant a tree at the closing ceremony. (Supplied: Sport Inclusion Australia)
In search of more opportunities for elite competition, Russell is now pursuing the possibility of receiving a classification for a secondary physical impairment.
If successful, it would provide him with a pathway towards both the Rowing World Championships and the Paralympics.
While the development of elite sport for athletes with intellectual impairment has been stop-start, Parr says that progress is being made.
International federations, such as World Para Swimming, World Para Athletics, International Tennis Federation and World Karate, have all given formal recognition and support to the Virtus Global Games in recent years.
Also, Parr is confident of having events for athletes with intellectual impairment installed at the Winter Paralympics "sooner rather than later".
As for increased representation at the Summer Games, there are significant bureaucratic hurdles to overcome.
One of them is the issue of space.
The International Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee have an agreed cap of 4,400 athletes at a Summer Paralympics.
That means that if more II events were to be added to the Paralympic program, either existing events would have to be removed, or a new cap negotiated.
However, Parr says that is not the "most limiting factor" for athletes with an intellectual impairment.
Rather, it is the lingering effects of those years spent in the Paralympic wilderness.
"I think sometimes there is still, frankly, a bit of a fear of working with athletes with an intellectual impairment, understanding what that condition may be," Parr said.
"Maybe there's some misunderstanding and myths we need to overcome."
And moving forward, he says it is imperative that athletes with an intellectual impairment are made to feel included in the ever-expanding Paralympic movement.
"The profile and understanding and awareness of Para sport is growing all the time, and we just want to make sure that athletes with an intellectual impairment are seen as a part of that," Parr said.
"Because it being a hidden disability, it's not always quite so easy to understand or recognise an athlete and how their sport might be affected."