Swimming at the 2008 Summer Paralympics explained

Event:	Swimming
Games:	2008 Summer
Venue:	Beijing National Aquatics Center
Dates:	7–15 September
Prev:	2004
Next:	2012

The swimming events of the 2008 Summer Paralympics were held in the Beijing National Aquatics Center between September 7 and September 15, 2008. A total of 140 gold medals were expected to be distributed. Paralympic records were broken in 122 events, of which the records in 108 events were also world records.

Classifications

Athletes are allocated a classification for each event based upon their disability to allow fairer competition between athletes of similar ability. The classifications for swimming are:

Visual impairment
- S11-S13
Other disability
- S1-S10 (Freestyle, backstroke and butterfly)
- SB1-SB9 (breaststroke)
- SM1-SM10 (individual medley)

Classifications run from S1 (severely disabled) to S10 (minimally disabled) for athletes with physical disabilities, and S11 (totally blind) to S13 (legally blind) for visually impaired athletes. Blind athletes must use blackened goggles.

Events

Due to the classification process, there were more than one set of medals in each of the traditional swimming events. The following events were held in the various classifications.

Men

Event	S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7	S8	S9	S10	S11	S12	S13
50 m freestyle		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
100 m freestyle		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
200 m freestyle		X	X	X	X
400 m freestyle						X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
50 m backstroke	X	X	X	X	X
100 m backstroke						X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
50 m butterfly					X	X	X
100 m butterfly								X	X	X	X	X	X

Event	SB3	SB4	SB5	SB6	SB7	SB8	SB9	SB11	SB12	SB13
50 m breaststroke	X
100 m breaststroke		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X

Event	SM4	SM5	SM6	SM7	SM8	SM9	SM10	SM12	SM13
150 m individual medley	X
200 m individual medley		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X

Event	20pts	34pts
4 × 50 m freestyle relay	X
4 × 100 m freestyle relay		X
4 × 50 m medley relay	X
4 × 100 m medley relay		X

Women

Event	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7	S8	S9	S10	S11	S12	S13
50 m freestyle		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
100 m freestyle			X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
200 m freestyle				X
400 m freestyle					X	X	X	X	X			X
50 m backstroke	X	X		X
100 m backstroke					X	X	X	X	X			X
50 m butterfly					X	X
100 m butterfly							X	X	X		X	X

Event	SM4	SM6	SM7	SM8	SM9	SM10	SM12	SM13
150 m individual medley	X
200 m individual medley		X	X	X	X	X	X	X

Qualification

There were 547 athletes (323 male, 224 female) from 62 nations that took part in this sport.

Medal summary

Medal table

This ranking sorts countries by the number of gold medals earned by their swimmers (in this context a country is an entity represented by a National Paralympic Committee). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If, after the above, countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically.

Men's events

50 m freestyle S2
50 m freestyle S3
50 m freestyle S4
50 m freestyle S5
50 m freestyle S6
50 m freestyle S7
50 m freestyle S8
50 m freestyle S9
50 m freestyle S10
50 m freestyle S11
50 m freestyle S12
50 m freestyle S13
100 m freestyle S2
100 m freestyle S3
100 m freestyle S4
100 m freestyle S5
100 m freestyle S6
100 m freestyle S7
100 m freestyle S8
100 m freestyle S9
100 m freestyle S10
100 m freestyle S11
100 m freestyle S12
100 m freestyle S13
200 m freestyle S2
200 m freestyle S3
200 m freestyle S4
200 m freestyle S5
400 m freestyle S6
400 m freestyle S7
400 m freestyle S8
400 m freestyle S9
400 m freestyle S10
400 m freestyle S11
400 m freestyle S12
400 m freestyle S13
50 m backstroke S1
50 m backstroke S2
50 m backstroke S3
50 m backstroke S4
50 m backstroke S5
100 m backstroke S6
100 m backstroke S7
100 m backstroke S8
100 m backstroke S9
100 m backstroke S10
100 m backstroke S11
100 m backstroke S12
100 m backstroke S13
50 m breaststroke SB3
100 m breaststroke SB4
100 m breaststroke SB5
100 m breaststroke SB6
100 m breaststroke SB7
100 m breaststroke SB8
100 m breaststroke SB9
100 m breaststroke SB11
100 m breaststroke SB12
100 m breaststroke SB13
50 m butterfly S5
50 m butterfly S6
50 m butterfly S7
100 m butterfly S8
100 m butterfly S9
100 m butterfly S10
100 m butterfly S11
100 m butterfly S12
100 m butterfly S13
150 m individual medley SM4
200 m individual medley SM5
200 m individual medley SM6
200 m individual medley SM7
200 m individual medley SM8
200 m individual medley SM9
200 m individual medley SM10
200 m individual medley SM12
200 m individual medley SM13
4×50 m freestyle 20pts	Jianping Du Yuan Tang Junguan He Yuanrun Yang	Richard Oribe Daniel Vidal Jordi Gordillo Sebastián Rodríguez	Clodoaldo Silva Joon Seo Daniel Dias Adriano Lima
4×100 m freestyle 34pts	Matt Walker Graham Edmunds David Roberts Robert Welbourn	Ben Austin Peter Leek Sam Bramham Matthew Cowdrey	Xiaoming Xiong Yanpeng Wei Xiaofu Wang Zhi Guo
4×50 m medley 20pts	Du Jianping Tang Yuan Xu Qing Yang Yuanrun	Daniel Dias Ivanildo Vasconcelos Luis Silva Clodoaldo Silva	Pablo Cimadevila Vicente Gil Daniel Vidal Sebastián Rodríguez
4×100 m medley 34pts	Matthew Cowdrey Rick Pendleton Peter Leek Ben Austin		Ievgen Poltavskyi Andriy Kalyna Andriy Sirovatchenko Taras Yastremskyy

Women's events

50 m freestyle S3
50 m freestyle S4
50 m freestyle S5
50 m freestyle S6
50 m freestyle S7
50 m freestyle S8
50 m freestyle S9
50 m freestyle S10
50 m freestyle S11
50 m freestyle S12
50 m freestyle S13
100 m freestyle S4
100 m freestyle S5
100 m freestyle S6
100 m freestyle S7
100 m freestyle S8
100 m freestyle S9
100 m freestyle S10
100 m freestyle S11
100 m freestyle S12
100 m freestyle S13
200 m freestyle S5
400 m freestyle S6
400 m freestyle S7
400 m freestyle S8
400 m freestyle S9
400 m freestyle S10
400 m freestyle S13
50 m backstroke S2
50 m backstroke S3
50 m backstroke S5
100 m backstroke S6
100 m backstroke S7
100 m backstroke S8
100 m backstroke S9
100 m backstroke S10
100 m backstroke S13
100 m breaststroke SB4
100 m breaststroke SB5
100 m breaststroke SB6
100 m breaststroke SB7
100 m breaststroke SB8
100 m breaststroke SB9
100 m breaststroke SB12
50 m butterfly S6
50 m butterfly S7
100 m butterfly S8
100 m butterfly S9
100 m butterfly S10
100 m butterfly S12
100 m butterfly S13
150 m individual medley SM4
200 m individual medley SM6
200 m individual medley SM7
200 m individual medley SM8
200 m individual medley SM9
200 m individual medley SM10
200 m individual medley SM12
200 m individual medley SM13

References

Web site: Schedules and Results – Swimming . The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad . 2008-09-08 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090316054306/http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRMP/ENG/Schedule/SW.shtml . 2009-03-16.

External links

Official Site of the 2008 Summer Paralympics