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Paralympics Swimming London 2012

With the second largest number of athletes and events at the Games, Swimming is one of the most popular Paralympic sports.

Did you know?

In all, 568 Paralympic swimmers took part in the Sydney 2000 Games.

Blind swimmers have to wear blackened goggles to ensure that competition is fair. Goggles are removed at the end of the race and checked by an official.

Key facts

Venue: Olympic Park - Aquatics Centre
Dates: Thursday 30 August – Saturday 8 September 2012
Medal events: 148
Athletes: 600 (350 men, 250 women)

Evidence of people swimming for sport dates back all the way back to Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek times, and it is now a hugely popular activity all over the world. With 600 swimmers competing in nearly 150 medal events across 10 days in the beautiful new Aquatics Centre, the Swimming competition at the Paralympic Games promises plenty of excitement.

The basics

Four strokes are used in Paralympic competition: Freestyle (essentially front crawl), Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly. All four strokes feature in the Medley Relay and 200m Individual Medley events; in addition, all of them except Butterfly feature in the 150m Individual Medley events for certain classifications. Races take place in a 50m pool, and may be started in a number of ways: from a standing start; using a dive start from a sitting position on the starting platform; and from within the water.

Swimmers are classified according to their functional ability to perform each stroke, and compete against athletes in their own classification. Classifications S1 to S10 cover athletes with physical disabilities; S11, S12 and S13 refer to blind athletes and those with visual impairments; and S14 is for athletes with intellectual disabilities. The higher the number of the class, the lower the disability.

Paralympic Swimming, past and present

Swimming is one of the few sports to have featured at every Paralympic Games since 1960, and remains one of the most popular on the Paralympic programme. At London 2012, the Swimming events will be held at the dazzling new Aquatics Centre, built especially for the Games in the Olympic Park.

Jargon Buster

Medley: A combination event in which a swimmer or team swims separate legs of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
Classification: Provides a structure for competition, whereby athletes with disabilities are grouped in classes defined by the degree of function presented by the disability.
Tapper: A ‘tapper’ may be required by a swimmer with a visual impairment to indicate that that they are approaching the end of the pool.

See Paralympic Swimming in action on ParalympicSportTV

Get involved

Swimming can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities. To find out how to get started, check the British Swimming website and Parasport. The Active Places website also allows you to search for facilities in England. For more on the sport at the Paralympic level, visit the International Paralympic Committee website.