Originally Posted by
benajah
\ for my classification, C4 (lower leg amputee) there are just so few of us racing that on a local level, for a race, you would be unlikely to have entries at all, much less enough to fill a field.
That is the issue - and it is not only seen in Para events but for juniors, women, masters, etc... There are only so many hours in a race day and so many categories you can fit in.
However there is nothing to prevent an organizer from running different but similar Para categories together. We did this years ago in one of my races as supporting Para athletes was important to the main sponsor. We got enough critical mass that there was a decent size field that made for a great race. Recently USA Handcycling has pushed hard to include handcycling events with other races and has been successful.