To all

National Paralympic Committees

By email

08 February 2024

Paris 2024 – Bipartite Application Process

Dear NPC President/Secretary General,

The qualification criteria for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games are designed to
ensure that the best athletes in each sport have an opportunity to compete at the
Games. While the primary method of implementing the Paralympic Games guiding
principles (set out in the IPC Handbook) is through the standard qualification
methods, the IPC and certain IFs have also sought to provide targeted
qualification slot allocations through Bipartite Commission Invitations.

Bipartite Commission Invitations are included in the overall athlete quotas of the
relevant sport, as set out in the sports’ chapters in the Paris 2024 Qualification
Regulations, which are published here: Paris 2024 Qualification Regulations
(paralympic.org).

Subject to the following, Bipartite Commission Invitations are granted by the IPC
in its sole discretion following engagement with the relevant IF.

As communicated in the Paris 2024 Qualification Regulations, first published on

10 June 2022, to be eligible for a Bipartite Commission Invitation, in all
circumstances:

a) an athlete must meet the general IPC regulations on eligibility and the IF’s
own sport-specific eligibility, both set out in the Paris 2024 Qualification
Regulations; and
b) an athlete must meet the relevant IF’s classification eligibility requirements
and may only be granted a Bipartite Commission Invitation in relation to an
event that is open to their respective sport class under the relevant IF’s
rules.
While at the sole discretion of the IPC, Bipartite Commission Invitations may
typically consider the following factors:

INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE

Adenauerallee 212-214, 53113 Bonn, Germany / paralympic.org
info@paralympic.org / Tel: +49 228 2097-200 / Fax: +49 228 2097-209
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• allowing the participation of top athletes who may not have had the
opportunity to qualify through other methods due to extraordinary
circumstances;
• ensuring the representation of athletes with high support needs;
• enabling greater representation by gender;
• ensuring medal events will have sufficient representation for event viability
purposes; and/or
• optimising the presentation of a particular contest within its competition
format and schedule.
Each Bipartite Commission Invitation is granted to an individual athlete, not to the
respective NPC. All Bipartite Commission Invitation decisions are final with no
opportunity for protest or appeal.

In certain sports and in individual cases the obligation to meet a specific

qualification criterion such as a Minimum Qualification Standard (MQS) may be
waived by the respective IF. Please refer to the relevant sport’s chapter of the Paris
2024 Qualification Regulations for further details.

For the avoidance of doubt, this in no way permits an athlete to apply for or be
allocated a Bipartite Commission Invitation for a medal event for which they do
not meet the other eligibility criteria referred to above. For example, it is not
permitted for a Bipartite Commission Invitation to be granted to an athlete for a
medal event which is not open to athletes in their sport class under the relevant
IF’s rules.

General eligibility criteria are explained in the front section of the Paris 2024
Qualification Regulations.

Sports offering Bipartite Commission Invitations:

The following 16 sports offer a combined total of up to 222 Bipartite slots:

Bipartite slots Application Application Bipartite
Sport Gender period period slots
Male Female Total starts ends allocated by
-free

Archery 4 4 - 8 tbd tbd tbd

Athletics 5 5 - 10 03 May 02 June 28 June

Badminton* 11 11 - 22 02 April 30 April 16 May

Boccia - - - Up to 24 03 June 17 June 01 July

Cycling 5 5 - 10 07 June 01 July 10 July

Equestrian - - - 3 19 February 18 March 25 March

INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE

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Judo - - 30 30 24 June 08 July 15 July

Powerlifting - - - 20 05 July 09 July 12 July

Rowing 4 4 - 8 17 May 09 June 30 June

Shooting 3 3 3 9 21 June 05 July 09 July

Swimming 5 5 - 10 16 February 12 April 28 June

Table Tennis 11 10 - 21 02 April 13 May 24 June

Taekwondo - - 5 5 01 May 31 May 17 June

Triathlon - - 16 16 01 June 03 July 08 July

Wh. Fencing 1 1 - 2 31 May 21 June 28 June

Wh. Tennis 12 8 4 24 12 February 22 July 30 July

Process:

Most of the sports listed above will use the IPC’s established Online Entry System
(linked to SDMS) to capture the NPCs’ Bipartite applications online. This includes
non-IPC sports which usually do not utilise our systems for athlete registration,
licensing and sport entries. The Online Entry System has been modified in order to
provide these sports with a convenient way of managing their Bipartite
application process. Please find attached a detailed user manual that will walk
you through the online application process.

Please note that the online Bipartite application interface is open to any
administrator who has access privileges to SDMS. If several administrators within
your NPC and its affiliated National Federations have access to SDMS, please
ensure that these individuals coordinate their efforts. It is recommended that only
one designated administrator per NPC submit all Bipartite applications for that
country.

*Badminton World Federation (BWF) has chosen to establish their own

procedures for collecting Bipartite applications. They will inform you separately of
their respective process. BWF will not use the IPC’s Online Entry System. Please
contact them directly with any questions.

Timeline:

The IPC’s Online Entry System will start accepting Bipartite applications at 0:01h
(Central European Time) on the days indicated for each sport in the table above.
The system closes at 23:59h (Central European Time) on the last day of each
sport’s application period. The IFs will inform in writing each NPC which has
obtained one or more Bipartite slot(s) by the allocation deadline in the table

INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE

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above. Note: The Bipartite timeline for Para archery will be confirmed over the
coming weeks.

We look forward to receiving your applications and wish you a successful Paris
2024 Paralympic Games.

Kind regards,

Jürgen Padberg
Paralympic Games Sport Senior Manager

INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE