In Paralympic snow sports, athletes are divided into functional categories: sitting, standing, and visually impaired. Each category includes varying degrees of disability: specific compensation factors are used to adjust times, thus ensuring competitive equity for athletes competing in the same category.

Specific equipment has been developed over time with increasingly sophisticated technologies. Seated athletes use a sit-ski, a seat mounted on one or two skis, for alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, and biathlon, respectively. Prosthetics and stabilizers are used by those competing standing. Athletes with visual impairments compete thanks to acoustic signals and the voice instructions of a guide who precedes them along the track.

Among Paralympic ice sports, special double-bladed sleds are used in para hockey, while specially adapted wheelchairs are used in curling. Increasingly advanced solutions and materials – in addition to the evolution of racing models themselves – have made sport accessible at the highest levels, transforming functional diversity into a plurality of ways to compete.