General Information
Athletes with a visual impairment are classified into three classes according to the degree of vision loss: 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
In the case of swimmers with a physical impairment, classification is based on several factors ie, muscle strength, movement co-ordination, joint range of movement and/or limb length. The swimmers are also required to perform a practical water session, performing all strokes and assessed accordingly on their ability.
After the assessment is completed, athletes are classified as follows:
- 10 classes (S1-S10) in Freestyle, Backstroke and Butterfly
- 10 classes (SM1-SM10) for Individual Medley, and
- 9 classes (SB1-SB9) in Breaststroke
The higher the number of the class, the lower the impairment, eg. S1 is for athletes with a severe impairment and S10 for athletes with a minimal impairment.
Depending on the classification of athletes with a physical impairment, the following events can be offered at the Paralympic Games:
- 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
