Introduction to Classification - Para Swimming

para swimming has been included in the paralympic games since the first edition in 1960 and it follows similar rules to that of olympic swimming para means that the para olympics are the parallel games to the olympics world para swimming is the international federation for the sport and is responsible for all aspects of it including classification and competition paralympics ireland is the national federation responsible for supporting and preparing para athletes at the elite level within ireland it is responsible for national classification and works with swim ireland for competition provision in paris swimming devices such as prosthesis are not permitted athletes with a vast range of disabilities compete in freestyle backstroke butterfly breaststroke medley and relay events with distances varying between 50 meters to 400 meters different styles of stroke might be used with varying levels of impairments to minimize the impact of the impairment on the competition athletes go through an evaluation called classification the classification includes a physical and technical assessment athletes might also be observed in competition this process determines if athletes are eligible for para swimming and divides them into different groups called classes according to the level of their activity limitation the classification uses a point system to evaluate each athlete you may see that athletes competing against each other have different impairments this is because the classes are allocated according to the impact of the impairment on the sport performance worldpara swimming offers competitions to athletes with physical vision and intellectual impairments the classes are named by use of prefix s for freestyle backstroke and butterfly sb for breaststroke and sm for medley this prefix is then followed by a number s1 to s10 are given to swimmers with a physical impairment the lower the number the greater the level of impairment s11 to s13 classes are given to vision impaired athletes and the s14 to athletes with an intellectual impairment athletes in the s11 class must wear blacked out goggles and be assisted by a tapper to indicate they are approaching the wall athletes start the race in different positions depending on their impairment some will start from a sitting position while others will start in the water or standing with or without assistance some athletes due to the nature of their impairment may receive certain exceptions in accordance with the rules athletes interested in getting involved in paris swimming should join a swim ireland affiliated club they should engage with paralympics ireland when they're ready to compete at regional level and need a national classification athletes who fulfill certain criteria will be invited to join the paris swimming development squad and proceed into the paralympic pathway only those athletes in or close to the pirate development squad need to be internationally classified as with all elite athletes para swimmers dedicate years of hard work and training to compete at the paralympic games and become a paralympian however the journey for all begins by contacting a club and finding a coach who can help you achieve your athletic goals for further information please access paralympics.ie or contact us on info paralympics.ie