(BEIJING, August 27) -- The Beijing Paralympic Games, scheduled for September 6 to 17, will award a total of 471 gold medals for 20 sports.

To ensure fair and safe competition, athletes with similar degrees of disability will be grouped in the same class. The Beijing Paralympics have set up 20 sports, and as a result of classification, a total of 471 gold medals will be awarded.

Medical classification for athletes with disabilities is a complicated task. Classification is conducted through medical and functional assessment, mobility tests and field observation.

Traditionally, athletes belong to six different disability groups in the Paralympic Movement: amputees, cerebral palsy sufferers, the visually impaired, spinal cord injured athletes, those with intellectual disabilities and a group which includes those that do not fit into the aforementioned groups.