In Para Swimming, athletes are classified on their functional ability to perform each stroke, and their skills are tested in freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and medley events.
The sport class names in Swimming consist of a prefix “S,” “SM,” or “SB” and a number. The prefixes stand for the strokes and the number indicates the sport classes. The lower number indicates a more severe activity limitation. The prefix “S” stands for Swimming (Freestyle, Backstroke and Butterfly), “SM” stands for Individual Medley, while “SB” stands for Breaststroke. Although athletes with different impairments compete against each other, the impact of their impairment on swim performance is similar.
Events are conducted as heats for eight competitors per class and the fastest eight swimmers per class compete against each other in the finals. During a swimming event, swimmers who are visually impaired are required to have an assistant to help them approach the swimming pool end wall, either to make a turn or for the finish of the race. These swimmers are also required to wear blackened goggles in all their events.
To ensure a proper start among visually impaired swimmers, the audience must maintain silence until the swimmers pass the false start rope. Any noise like horn and whistle may be misunderstood as a sign of false start.
Tentative Games Schedule for 1 August 2022
- – Men’s 400m freestyle S6, S7, S8, S9, S10 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Women’s 400m freestyle S6, S7, S8 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Men’s 100m breaststroke SB11, SB12, SB13, SB14 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Women’s 100m breaststroke SB11, SB12, SB13, SB14 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Men’s 100m breaststroke SB7, SB8, SB9 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Women’s 100m breaststroke SB7, SB8, SB9 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Men’s 100m freestyle S7, S8, S9, S10 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Women’s 100m freestyle S7, S8, S9, S10 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Men’s 50m backstroke S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S10, S14 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Women’s 50m backstroke S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S14 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Men‘s 4 x 100m freestyle relay 34 pts – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay S14 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay S14 – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Mixed 4 x 50m freestyle relay 20 pts – 10:00am (SGT)
- – Men’s 4 x 100m medley relay 49 pts – 10:00am (SGT)
