Never before had Annabelle Lindsay wished she was more disabled.

But in 2021, as her former teammates set sail for the Tokyo Paralympics, the thought crossed her mind.

In 2020, an International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decision barred her from continuing to represent the Gliders, Australia’s women’s wheelchair basketball team.

A sudden change in classification rules meant her disability was no longer deemed ‘severe’ enough for international competition.

Overnight, her life changed entirely.

Her wheelchair basketball scholarship at the University of Texas was cut short, her international sporting career was over at the age of 23, and, not for the first time, she was left to wonder where she fitted in.

“I’ve always been such a sporty person, so to suddenly not have access to sport – well, that was really, really hard,” Lindsay said.

Jessi Hooper, too, knows what it’s like to find yourself on the outside looking in.

Diagnosed with a rare neurological condition in 2019, she found boccia at a time when she feared her sporting days may well have been behind her.

Originally designed for athletes with cerebral palsy, boccia can be loosely described as a mixture of lawn bowls and bocce and is one of the world’s fastest growing Para sports.

Hooper had a natural aptitude for the game, and it wouldn’t be long before she was dreaming of Paralympic glory.

But those dreams were dashed when, late last year, Hooper, like Lindsay, was classified as ineligible for international competition.

And she couldn’t afford the “thousands of dollars” it would have cost to procure the medical documentation required to appeal that decision.

Since then, her boccia equipment has done little but gather dust.

Classification is at the very heart of the Paralympics, and its necessity is self-evident.

But cracks can emerge in even the best- laid foundations.

Classification integral to Para sport

For all Paralympic sports, classification aims to promote fairness by grouping athletes by the impact their impairment has on their degree of function in their chosen sport.

This means that athletes are not classified by their impairment alone, and that people with different disabilities often compete against each other.

A Para athlete’s classification is an integral part of their sporting identity, and this was clear to Hooper early on in her boccia journey.

“I went to my first training and they were talking about what classification I’d be,” she said.

International boccia competition is comprised of four classification categories:

• BC1: Athletes have severe activity limitations affecting their legs, arms and trunk. They either throw or kick their balls towards the jack and may have help from an assistant.
• BC2: This category is for throwing players only. No assistance is permitted, and athletes have more arm and trunk function that their BC1 counterparts.
• BC3: Athletes are unable to grasp or grip the ball and use a device such as a ramp to direct their balls towards the jack. An assistant is permitted.
• BC4: For athletes with other, non-cerebral based impairments.

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For competition at a national level, Boccia Australia also offers the BC5 and the OPEN classes, for athletes whose impairments are not eligible for classes BC 1 to 4, but who still want to play the sport.

In an online classification that took place during the COVID19 pandemic, Hooper was classed as a BC5, but she was reclassified as a BC1 before one of her early tournaments.

Deemed ‘un-classifiable’

Hooper competed as a BC1 for over a year.

But in late 2023, as part of routine preparations for the Boccia Australia National Titles, Hooper underwent another classification.

“These classifiers hadn’t heard of my condition. They’d done a Google search. From that they said I was un-classifiable,” she said.

Hooper claims this contrasted with her previous classification, when the classifiers were familiar with her condition.

“[The classifier] had done research into it – proper research,” Hooper said.

All Para athletes have a right to a review of their classification if they disagree with its outcome.

In emails seen by the ABC, Boccia Australia offered Hooper the opportunity for that, dependent on her providing the required medical documentation – something Hooper says she couldn’t afford to obtain.

“It was thousands of dollars worth of testing,” Hooper said.

Hooper also claims that she had previously provided Boccia Australia with relevant medical documentation.

“They said I needed a note from my neurologist, which I had given them in my first classification,” she said.

In a statement provided to ABC Sport, a Boccia Australia spokesperson said:

“It is not unusual for athletes to have regular reviews and their classifications adjusted as their impairments can change over time.

“When medical information is submitted, this allows the classification panel to gather information about that condition and see if it complies with the eligibility requirements for the sport. 

“We appreciate it can be disappointing for some athletes to be moved to a class that doesn’t allow participation at international competitions.”  

‘In a dark place’: the decision not to appeal

Annabelle Lindsay also had the opportunity to appeal the decision that barred her from international competition.

But she chose not to.

Lindsay said her reclassification was so draining, so devastating, that she had no capacity to prolong the saga.

“For me, mentally, I just couldn’t do it,” Lindsay said.

“I was in such a dark place that I actually couldn’t go through it.”

Lindsay only came to wheelchair basketball after a severe knee injury ended her non-disabled basketball career, so she already had experience in reconfiguring her sporting identity.

But never, during the four years she played international wheelchair basketball, did she worry she might find herself on the outside looking in once again.

“We never even thought that this would be a possibility, especially in a Games year,” Lindsay said.

With only a matter of months until the Tokyo Games and with the COVID19 pandemic still impacting international travel and medical appointments, Lindsay “scrambled” to gather the documents required for her classification.

Living in the US at the time, matters were only complicated further by a foreign healthcare system. She struggled to find a doctor who could provide the required medical paperwork.

“It was unbelievably difficult,” Lindsay said.

Unlike classifications she had undertaken in the past, the process was conducted by medical professionals without a connection to herself or the sport.

“It wasn’t done by international classifiers – it was done by medical professionals who were not in the sporting or disability space at all,” Lindsay said.

“It was so last minute there was no opportunity for international classifiers to actually look at us.”

The after shocks of life without elite sport

Lindsay said that being classed-out of her sport was one of the most difficult experiences of her life.

“There was so much shame and embarrassment,” she said.

“Sport is such a huge part of my identity. So, losing that, I had to figure out who I was.”

Lindsay also lost her wheelchair basketball scholarship at the University of Texas, meaning she had to transfer universities and move back to Australia. She says this added another year and a half to her degree.

“Someone had to pack up my apartment for me and keep my stuff in their garage for two years,” Lindsay said.

“It ended everything. I had to take a whole new life path.”

Back in Australia, Lindsay struggled to acclimatise to a Gliders-less life.

“I isolated myself for about two years, I didn’t get in my chair, I didn’t play sport — I didn’t want to,” she said.

“And while people were so kind and amazing, I didn’t know how to talk. I didn’t know where I fit in the community or in the space.”

Jessi Hooper is still struggling to find her place within a boccia community she now sorely misses.

“I just wanted a connection, I wanted friends, I wanted to exercise,” Hooper said.

“I just wanted to have people around me who understood what it was like to have acquired disabilities, or just disabilities in general. And I found that playing boccia.”

Since her reclassification in late 2023, she has had little contact with the community.

“I did try to argue my case a little bit and point out that I had sent in all the evidence they were requesting,” Hooper said.

Hooper claims she was told by Boccia Australia that she could attend training, but not partake in competitions.

“I still think about boccia so often,” Hooper said.

“There are training sessions in Melbourne that I want to attend, but I’m still just so upset about what happened. I miss all my friends, I miss everyone.”

Regarding Hooper’s ability to compete, Boccia Australia provided ABC Sport with the following statement:

“In the case for Jessi, she is still able to compete in Australia to the highest level, the Boccia Australia National Titles.

“We have previously been in touch with the classifiers and Jessi regarding her classification, and she had been encouraged to provide the requested medical information to classifiers to complete the review.”

The importance of player welfare

Although it took some time, Lindsay has found her way back to the sport she so loves.

She now both coaches and plays wheelchair basketball at a domestic level.

“I just couldn’t help but come back,” she said.

“While the stuff I did as an athlete I’m super proud of, it was the opportunity to mentor or give back that I enjoyed the most.”

But she still feels the impact of her “classing out.”

“I think what’s important, going forward, is the athlete’s welfare being at the forefront when implementing these classification changes.

“We do a lot of work about disability being a spectrum, and that there are disabilities that you can’t necessarily see with the naked eye.

“I think the classification decision really made us take a step back in that space.”

And like Hooper, she still feels the financial ramifications of her reclassification.

Without the grants or sponsorship opportunities that can come with being a classified athlete, she has been left to finance her career-rebirth entirely from her own pocket.

And when sports chairs alone can cost up to $15,000, that’s no easy feat.

“Even as a retired national level athlete, the cost is a barrier for me,” she said.

“If my chair breaks, I reckon I probably just wouldn’t play – it would be too expensive to replace.”