Throughout the world swimming is one of the most popular sports and the number one solo sport among people with a disability in the Netherlands and the rest of the world. During the World Championships over 800 athletes from across the world wil compete against one another to get the best out of themselves.

 

The events
The swim distances vary from 50 metres to 400 metres and represent in four different swimming styles the challanges at this WC. The distances will be swum in different classes. The following events can be distinguished:

• Freestyle: 50 metres, 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres
• Breastroke: 50 metres, 100 metres, 200 metres
• Butterfly: 50 metres, 100 metres, 200 metres
• Medley: 150 metres, 200 metres
• Freestyle relay: 4 x 50 metres, 4 x 100 metres
• Medley relay: 4 x 50 metres, 4 x 100 metres

Open Water Swimming
The World Championships will be concluded with an open water swimming competition of five kilometres for men and women. The open water swimming copetition will be "open class", meaning that athletes from different handicap classes will compete against one another.

 

Different classes
For the ranking of the individuals within the sport for people with a disability a functional classification system is used because of the wide variety of disabilities. This is necessary to guarantee a competition between well-matched opponents. Classification is based on the possibilities and limitations of the athletes. Competitors are classified based on their functional ability to perform a particular stroke.

• Classes S1 to S10 are for swimmers with physical disabilities. The higher the number of the class, the lower the disability, e.g., class 1 is for athletes with a severe disability and class 10 for athletes with a minimal disability.
• 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.
• Class S14 is for athletes with an intellectual disability

The 50 meter pool is required for competition at the World Championships. Events are conducted as heats for a maximum of eight competitors per class and with the fastest swimmers per class competing in the finals. There are various forms for swimmers to start their race; in the water, a dive start sitting on the starting platform or the typical standing start.

 

During a Swimming event, swimmers who are blind are required to have an assistant to help him/her as he or she approaches the swimming pool end wall, either to make a turn or for the finish of the race. This process is called "tapping" and performed by a "tapper". These swimmers are also required to wear blackenend goggles in all their events.