Shooting Para sport is the sport of shooting for Para athletes who have a physical impairment leading to reduced function in the lower and/or upper limbs.
In competitions that can last up to three hours, Para athletes must place a series of shots as close as possible to the centre of the target.
Shooters compete in rifle and pistol events from distances of 10m, 25m and 50m.
Depending on the event and the sport class, athletes compete in a kneeling position, standing (or in a wheelchair or on a shooting seat, when they are unable to stand) or prone (athletes in a wheelchair can use an elbow support table).
New Zealand boasts an outstanding crop of Shooting Para sport athletes led by Michael Johnson, four time Paralympian and the Athens 2004 Paralympic Mixed 10m air rifle standing SH2 champion.
To find out what’s available near you, register with Paralympics New Zealand today.
In Shooting Para sport, there are three different sport classes for Para athletes with physical impairments:
Eligible impairments include paraplegia and equivalent, quadriplegia and equivalent, impaired or amputated lower limbs, amputated upper limbs, hemiplegia, short stature.
Read more about classification in Para sport.
For more details, please download the following information sheet.
Para shooting was introduced as a medal sport on to the Paralympic programme for the first time at the Toronto Games with three medal events. A total of 37 Para shooters competed, including three women Para athletes.
Some 29 medal events featured on the Para shooting programme at the New York 1984 Paralympic Games.
At the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games the format moved away from a disability-oriented classification system towards a functional classification system with integrated events.
The inaugural IPC Shooting World Championships took place in Linz in Austria. The event is later established as a quadrennial event.
A total of 140 Para shooters from 44 countries competed in 12 medal events at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
At the IPC Shooting World Championships in Suhl, Germany, 250 Para athletes from more than 45 countries gathered to compete.
Three Para athletes represented New Zealand at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
One Para athlete represented New Zealand at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
New Zealand hosted its first international WSPS Grand Prix.
