Being visually impaired does not prevent you from doing sports freely, running, swimming or playing chess. So yes, a visually impaired person can do sports. Believe in yourself and your potential power. Get inspired by successful athletes from Turkey and the world who are visually impaired and enjoy the freedom of sports…
Which Sports Can a Visually Impaired Person Do?
A visually impaired person can participate in many sports such as football, futsal, goalball, weightlifting, judo, running, chess and swimming. So how will a visually impaired person do these sports?
How Does a Visually Impaired Person Play Football?
Football for the visually impaired is played by athletes in the B1 category (totally blind).
Teams consist of 5 players and 1 goalkeeper who does not have a visual impairment. All players except the goalkeeper must wear eye masks.
Teams can have up to 4 substitute players. The game is played in an open field, with a total of 30 minutes in the first half and second half.
There are also two guides on each team. One of them is in the midfield and the other is behind the opponent’s goal. They direct the team players.
The ball has a bell inside it and the player who takes the ball from another player must say “Woy”.
How Does a Visually Impaired Person Play Futsal?
Futsal for visually impaired people is played by athletes in categories B2 and B3. There can be at least 2 and at most 4 players from category B2 in teams.
There can be at most 2 or no players from the B3 category.
Teams consist of 5 people and 1 goalkeeper who is not visually impaired. There are at most 4 substitute players on teams. The game is played indoors, and lasts 40 minutes in total with the first half and second half.
How Does a Visually Impaired Person Play Goalball?
Actually, goalball is a sport branch specific to visually impaired people. So how is this game played?
Both athletes who have little or no vision wear eye masks.
They use a ball with a bell inside to score goals against the opposing team’s goal. Teams consist of three people (there must be a maximum of 3 substitute players).
The matches last 24 minutes in total (first half for 12 minutes, second half for 12 minutes). If the opponent team scores 10 more goals than their own team, the match ends in less than 24 minutes.
Can a Visually Impaired Person Do Weightlifting and Judo?
Yes they can. In these branches, athletes are separated according to their weight classes. And they compete with athletes in their own weight class.
How Does a Visually Impaired Person Run?
Let’s learn how visually impaired people run together.
Running branches for visually impaired people consist of three categories depending on their level of vision. The divisions are B1, B2 and B3 for Turkey, T11, T12 and T13 for the rest of the world.
The B1 / T11 category includes athletes who have no vision. In this category, athletes must wear eye masks while running and run with a guide.
Athletes in the B2 / T12 category can run with a guide if they wish.
Athletes in the B3 / T13 category can run by themselves without using an eye mask and without a guide.
How Does a Visually Impaired Person Play Chess?
There are round holes on the game board that visually impaired people can touch and feel. There are nails at the ends of the pieces for them to fit into these holes. In addition, there are protrusions on the top of black pieces, but there are no protrusions on white pieces. Players can distinguish the pieces with these protrusions.
How Does a Visually Impaired Person Swim?
Let’s learn together how they swim.
In the swimming branch, classifications are divided into three categories as S11, S12 and S13.
Athletes in the S11 category have to race with glasses that they can still see around as black. This obligation does not cover athletes in S12 and S13 categories.
In this article, we talked about how visually impaired individuals participate in many sports branches and how they are categorized in sports branches.
Author: Sonnur Güleşçe / BlindLook Team
