Largest competition for users and developers of technical-assistance devices

The largest competition for bionic athletes is Cybathlon, a championship designed to promote the development of new and improved assistive technologies. The event is organized in partnership with Swiss university ETH Zurich, and is held every four years. The 2024 edition, held on 25–27 October, attracted 67 teams from 24 countries who competed either in person at Zurich or at one of seven remote hubs around the world.

Cybathlon was created as a way to drive further research into what are called "assistive technologies". This can mean anything from a simple single-axis prosthetic hand to a robotic exoskeleton designed to allow individuals with spinal cord injuries to walk. Each event, or "race", involves an obstacle-course-like set of real-world challenges for the competitors (known as "pilots") to overcome against the clock. The emphasis is on practicality and ease of use, rather than athleticism. The powered-arm prosthesis race, for example, sees pilots opening jars, changing lightbulbs, and completing other tests of dexterity.

The competition is designed to foster close collaboration between engineering teams and people with disabilities. It was the idea of ETH Zurich roboticist Professor Robert Riener, who had observed that university engineering labs spent a lot of time on assistive technology without producing viable products. The main reason for this failure was that these teams did not seek the input of people with disabilities during the development process, and so often came up with designs that were elegant but that didn't address people's real world problems. Cybathlon uses an entertaining competitive format to inspire innovative new approaches and more user-friendly design.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced many teams to withdraw, the 2020 edition still attracted 51 teams from 20 countries. As the teams could not travel to compete in person, Cybathlon held a special "Global Edition", with each team setting up their own matching facilities to compete remotely. The live stream of the event was translated into 10 different languages including sign language. The organizers are using the lessons learned from this decentralized competition to create the Cybathlon Series and Cybathlon Experience events, which will allow teams to put their designs to the test on a more frequent basis.