Abstract
The interest and competitiveness in Paralympic sports continuously increased over the past years. Typical medical impairment types competing at Paralympic games are amputations/limb deficiencies, cerebral palsy, spinal cord related disabilities, visual impairments, les autres (e.g., dwarfism) and intellectual impairments. Among Para-athletes, especially wheelchair athletes with a spinal cord injury (SCI) are faced with drastic physiological consequences and challenges related to exercise performance. These physiological adaptations are a direct or indirect consequence of the partial or total loss of motor, sensory and vegetative functions below the lesion and include musculoskeletal adaptations, pressure sores, shoulder pain, cardiovascular adaptations, thermoregulatory dysfunction, respiratory, urological and gastrointestinal complications. All these topics could negatively impact exercise performance of wheelchair athletes, which will be addressed in more detail in the present article. Further, practical considerations and recommendations for daily sports medical practice will be presented in order to optimize exercise performance in wheelchair athletes.
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