Para-Swimming Classification

What is Classification?

You’ll need to be classified to swim in any competitions in England as a para-swimmer. Your times will be compared to other swimmers in your class, or you will score a points total, based on your performance relative to the world record in your class. Swimmers are classified to enable people with similar types of impairment to compete against one another.

Eligible Impairments for Para-Swimming

World Para Swimming caters for three impairment groups – physical, intellectual and vision impairment. There are 10 eligible impairment types in Para-Swimming:

Eligible Impairment	Examples of Heath Conditions that can lead to Impairment
Impaired Muscle Power Athletes with Impaired Muscle Power have a Health Condition that either reduces or eliminates their ability to voluntarily contract their muscles in order to move or to generate force.	Spinal cord injury (complete or incomplete, tetra-or paraplegia or paraparesis), muscular dystrophy, post-polio syndrome and spina bifida.
Limb Deficiency Athletes with Limb Deficiency have total or partial absence of bones or joints.	Traumatic amputation, illness (for example amputation due to bone cancer) or congenital limb deficiency (for example dysmelia).
Leg Length Difference Athletes with Leg Length Difference have a difference in the length of their legs.	Dysmelia and congenital or traumatic disturbance of limb growth.
Short Stature Athletes with Short Stature will have a reduced length in the bones of the upper limbs, lower limbs and/or trunk.	Achondroplasia, growth hormone dysfunction, and osteogenesis imperfecta.
Hypertonia Athletes with hypertonia have an increase in muscle tension and a reduced ability of a muscle to stretch caused by damage to the central nervous system.	Cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury and stroke.
Ataxia Athletes with Ataxia have uncoordinated movements caused by damage to the central nervous system.	Cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke and multiple sclerosis.
Athetosis Athletes with Athetosis have continual slow involuntary movements.	Cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury and stroke.
Impaired Passive Range of Movement Athletes with Impaired Passive Range of Movement have a restriction or a lack of passive movement in one or more joints.	Arthrogryposis and contracture resulting from chronic joint immobilisation or trauma affecting a joint.
Vision Impairment Athletes with vision impairment have reduced or no vision caused by damage to the eye structure, optical nerves or optical pathways, or visual cortex of the brain.	Examples of an Underlying Health Condition that can lead to Vision Impairment include retinitis pigmentosa and diabetic retinopathy.
Intellectual Impairment Athletes with an intellectual Impairment have a restriction in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour that affects conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills required for everyday life. This Impairment must be present before the age of 18.

Sport Classes

The sport class names in swimming consist of a prefix “S” or “SB” and a number. The prefixes stand for the strokes and the number indicates the sport classes. The prefixes stand for:

S: freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events
SB: breaststroke
SM: individual medley. The prefix “SM” is given to athletes competing in individual medley events. It is not a sports class, but an entry index and calculated as (3xS + SB)/4; for classes S1-4 who have a 3-discipline medley, the formula is (2S + SB)/3).

Sport Classes S1-S10 / SB1 – SB9 / SM1- SM10 – physical impairment.
There are ten different sport classes for athletes with physical impairment, numbered 1-10. Athletes with different impairments compete against each other, because sport classes are allocated based on the impact the impairment has on swimming, rather than on the impairment itself. To evaluate the impact of impairments on swimming, classifiers assess all functional body structures using a point system and ask the athlete to complete a water assessment. The total number of points then determines the athlete’s S and SB sport classes. Due to the different demands of S and SB events, swimmers are often allocated different S and SB sport classes. The SM sport class is calculated from the S and SB sport class.

Sport Classes S/SB11-13 – vision impairment
Athletes with a vision impairment compete in three sport classes from S/SB11 to S/SB13.

S/SB11: These athletes have a very low visual acuity and/ or no light perception.

S/SB12: Athletes have a higher visual acuity than athletes competing in the S/SB11 sport class and/ or a visual field of less than 5 degrees radius.

S/SB13: Athletes have the least severe vision impairment eligible for Paralympic sport. They have the highest visual acuity and/or a visual field of less than 20 degrees radius.

In order to ensure a fair competition athletes in the S/SB11 sport class are required to wear blackened goggles. To ensure safety all S/SB11 swimmers must use a tapper, swimmers in the S/SB12 and S/SB13 sport classes may choose whether or not they wish to use one.

Sport Classes S/SB14 – intellectual impairment
S14 swimmers have an intellectual impairment, which typically leads to the athletes having difficulties with regards to pattern recognition, sequencing, and memory, or having a slower reaction time, which impact on sport performance in general. Moreover, S14 swimmers show a higher number of strokes relative to their speed than able-bodied elite swimmers.

Codes of Exemption

Swimmers are allocated exception codes, which prevents them from being disqualified for rule infringement due to the nature of their impairment. The procedure to identify relevant swimmer exception codes at competitions has been identified as follows:

Disability specific competitions– meet organisers will be responsible for having up to date information about each swimmer at entry and providing this to the meet referee.
Competitions which include Multi-Classification (MC) entry conditions – meet organisers will be responsible for having up to date information about each swimmer at entry and providing this to the meet referee.
For entry where no MC entry conditions exist – the swimmer will be responsible for providing stroke exceptions where applicable. This can be done by checking the relevant Home Country Membership . This can be shown to meet referee via the internet on smart phones or mobile devices, or by producing a printed version of the relevant Home Country Membership page.

For codes of exceptions relating to classification prior to January 2018 please see here.

Starts

H – Hearing Impairment – light or signal required
A – Assistance required
E – Unable to grip for backstroke start
Y – Starting device
T – Tapper
B – Blackened/opaque goggles

During the swim

One hand start
Breaststroke – One Hand Touch
Breaststroke – Simultaneous Intent to Touch
Butterfly – One Hand Touch
Butterfly – Simultaneous Intent to Touch

Part of upper body must touch
Right foot must turn out
Left foot must turn out

Leg drag or show intent to kick

+ Athlete is physically capable of performing a Butterfly Kick

Strokes

Freestyle – No exception (nil)
Backstroke – Only exception ‘1’ may apply
Butterfly – Exceptions ‘4, 5, 7’ may apply
Breaststroke – Exceptions; Upper Body: ‘2, 3, 7’ may apply, Lower Body: ‘8, 9 or 12, +’ may apply.