Virtus Sport
What is Virtus?
Virtus World Intellectual Impairment Sport or “Virtus” is the International Federation for athletes with intellectual impairment. Virtus is a founding member of the International Paralympic Committee.
Virtus governs the eligibility of athletes with an intellectual impairment, elite competition and sport development.
Virtus advocates for inclusion in sport, and building elite pathways for more athletes with an intellectual impairment to compete at the highest levels of international sport.
Who is eligible to compete in the Virtus Competitions?
Intellectual Impairment is a global (or umbrella) term for a range of cognitive and developmental conditions.
Within Virtus competitions, there are three eligible groups:
- II1 (Intellectual Impairment)
- II2 (Significant Intellectual Impairment)
- II3 (Autism)
To compete in Virtus competitions, athletes must go through an eligibility process and be included on the Virtus Athlete Eligibility master list.
Virtus in New Zealand
Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ) is the affiliated national member organisation for Virtus in New Zealand. PNZ governs the eligibility of athletes with intellectual impairment for Virtus sports and promotes Virtus elite competition and sport development.
The Virtus Global Games
The Virtus Global Games are held every four years and in 2023, they were held in Vichy, France where around 1,100 athletes and officials from 60 nations took part.
Rowing was one of the nine sports contested at the 2023 Global Games.