Swimming is one of the longest standing sports for athletes with a disability. World records of visually impaired swimmers closely match those of their able-bodied peers. Next to athletics, swimming attracts the largest number of competitors for any sport at the Paralympics.
As with the Olympic Games, competitors measure their skills in freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, and medley events. A FINA standard eight-lane 50m pool is required for competition at the Paralympic Games. Events are conducted in heats of eight competitors per class. The fastest eight swimmers per class compete in the finals.
Swimming is governed by the IPC and co-ordinated by the IPC Swimming Technical Committee, which incorporates the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA). The FINA rules are followed with a few modifications, such as race start changes and assistants for visually impaired athletes. Depending on their disability, swimmers can start in the water, from a dive start sitting on the starting platform, or from the typical standing start. Blind and visually impaired swimmers are required to wear blackened goggles and have an assistant (called a tapper) to help (tap) him/her as he/she approaches the pool end wall to make turns or finish the race.
The governing body is the IPC www.ipc-swimming.org, and the sport is also co-ordinated by the IPC Swimming Technical Committee, which uses the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA). The FINA rules are followed with a few modifications including race starts and the use of signals or ‘tappers’ for swimmers with blindness/visual impairment. Swimming Canada is the National Sport Federation.
Classification
Male and female competitors with either a physical disability or blindness/visual impairment can compete in Paralympic swimming. Athletes are classified based on their functional ability to perform each stroke. Prostheses and assistive devices are not permitted. Disabilities include: amputee, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, blindness and visual impairment.
Athletes are classified based on
their functional ability to perform each stroke.
Visually-impaired classes: Athletes with a visual impairment are classified into three classes, according to the degree of vision loss. These classes include S11 for athletes with no sight to class S13 for legally blind. The following events are offered at the Paralympic Games for these athletes:
- 50m, 100m and 400m Freestyle
- 100m Backstroke
- 100m Breaststroke
- 100m Butterfly
- 200m Individual Medley
- 4x100m Freestyle Relay and 4x100m Medley Relay
Physical disability classes: Classification is based on muscle strength, movement co-ordination, joint range of movement and/or limb length. These swimmers are also required to perform a practical water session where they perform all strokes and are assessed accordingly on their ability. Athletes are classified as follows, with class 1 assigned to athletes with a severe disability and class 10 for athletes with a minimal disability:
- 10 classes (S1-S10) in Freestyle, Backstroke and Butterfly
- 10 classes (SM1-SM10) for Individual Medley
- 9 classes (SB1-SB9) in Breaststroke
The following Paralympic events are open to classes as indicated below:
- 50m and 100m Freestyle: class S1 to S10
- 200m Freestyle: class S1 to S5
- 400m Freestyle: class S6 to S10
- 50m Backstroke: class S1 to S5
- 100m Backstroke: class S6 to S10
- 50m Butterfly: class S1 to S7
- 100m Butterfly: class S8 to S10
- 50m Breaststroke: class SB1 to SB3
- 100m Breaststroke: class SB4 to SB9
- 150m Individual Medley: class SM1 to SM4
- 200m Individual Medley: class SM5 to SM10
- Relay 4x50m Freestyle and 4x50 Medley Relay
- Relay 4x100m Freestyle and 4x100m Medley Relay
History
Swimming has been part of the Paralympics since the first games in Rome in 1960. Today, men and women with physical disabilities or blindness/visual impairment compete in swimming events in more than 80 countries worldwide.
