Sport: Swimming

Facts about Swimming

Swimming was one of the first sports to be included in the Paralympic Games programme back in 1960. At the Paralympic World Cup athletes compete in 6 classes: Individual Medley, Butterfly, Backstroke, Freestyle, Breaststroke and Multi Disability races.

Races are held in long course format in the 50m pool and in any one class swimmers may start with a dive or in the water depending on their condition. Lane orders for finals are decided from the times recorded in the heats (or by entry times in the case of a straight final). As the fastest qualifiers swim in the middle lanes, theoretically, this creates a spearhead format in the race and provides the spectators with the lanes to watch!

Swimming at the Paralympic World Cup

24 countries featured in an intense competition in the pool on Saturday 12th May at the Aquatics Centre in Manchester, with athletes from the top five countries at the Paralympic Games in Athens 2004 all racing it out.

The 13 straight classification events as well as four multi disability races saw South African Natalie du Toit and the GB team share the spotlight. Twenty three year old du Toit won a hat-trick of titles 100m freestyle, S9 100m freestyle and multi-disability 50m freestyle, while the host nation collected seven gold, six silver and five bronze medals.

PWC 2008

2008 will feature a strong line-up to complement an extended programme of events. With rivalries still fresh in the mind from the World Championships and Beijing on the horizon, competition will be fierce once again.

Organisations