The Paralympics are about to start in Paris and, with 30 swimmers selected for the Australian team, chances are looking good for a medal haul.
Spearheaded by veteran Brenden Hall, in his fifth Games, and newcomer Alexa Leary, who delighted audiences at the selection trials earlier this year, there is an air of excitement around what this team could achieve.
As a Paralympic swimmer and ABC Sport reporter, I often get asked about certain rules and practices within Paralympic swimming that can seem confusing for the audience at home and in the stands.
While many of the rules are the same as in non-disabled competition, there are some slight differences that help to ensure Para swimmers get a fair go in the pool.
So here are the top five questions I receive that a lot of people are often too afraid to ask.
Why are you racing against someone with a different disability to yourself?
Elizabeth Wright is a three-time Paralympic medallist, winning silver in the S6 400m freestyle at Sydney 2000. (Supplied: Australian Paralympic Committee)
Classified as an S6, I used to race against swimmers with a myriad of disabilities and this would confuse a lot of people.
My disability is limb difference, and my main S6 competitors’ impairments included being of short stature, muscular dystrophy, and cerebral palsy.
In swimming, classification is divided into categories: S1 to S10 represents those with physical disabilities, S11 to S13 represents vision impaired swimmers, and S14 represents those with an intellectual disability.
With physical disability, specific classification is based on the impact the swimmer’s impairment has on their swimming, not the impairment itself.
When being classified, swimmers are allocated points based on a classifier’s valuation of body function as well as a water-based assessment.
So even though we can look and move differently, we all have the same function level.
While it may seem unfair that I am competing against swimmers with different disabilities, the point is that most impairments can impact an athlete’s ability to swim in different ways, even if you share the same disability.
The classification system ensures that we are competing on as level a playing field as possible.
Loading…
How do you keep straight in the pool?
Swimmers can still swim in a straight line, no matter how many limbs they have. (Getty Images: Adam Pretty)
As a swimmer with half my limbs missing, a lot of people believe I must swim round and round in circles, but that would make for a very dizzy swimmer and a slow race.
I do swim straight in the pool lane, and I obviously do compensate in some way to keep myself moving forward, but it is something that I have never consciously thought about.
Over my years of swimming, I have used certain markers to help me keep straight in my lane, especially during a backstroke race, where you look for a line to follow on the roof of the pool (or a tree or building marker if you are swimming in an outside pool), but these are a lot of things non-disabled swimmers also do.
Also, like non-disabled swimmers, Para swimmers spend years working on their technique, practising starts and turns and sprints, perfecting the way that they swim, including staying straight in the lane.
Many swimmers can also use the lane rope to ensure they keep moving towards the end of the pool, especially swimmers with vision impairment, who run their fingertips along the lane rope to keep their position in the water.
Do you swim with your prosthetic leg on?
Sophie Pascoe, like all other athletes with missing limbs, takes her prosphetic off before getting in the pool. (Getty Images: Lintao Zhang)
No, I don’t.
I suspect, if I dove in the pool with my prosthetic leg on, I would sink to the bottom of the pool. It is something that I have not tried before, and I do not intend to.
The thing with prosthetic legs is that they can be quite heavy, especially for those with an above knee prosthesis which includes a knee joint. Also, water can cause damage to a lot of prosthetics, including arms, causing them to break and become dangerous for the user.
It can be confusing for the average viewer at home who is probably used to seeing Para athletes running around the stadium track with their prosthetic legs firmly attached.
But not all Para athletes need to use a prosthetic or other mobility device to compete in the Paralympics.
By the way, we don’t see swimmers swimming with their wheelchair, either.
Why do some people dive in and others start in the water?
Some athletes have to be held on the blocks for stability purposes. (Getty Images: Lintao Zhang)
Whenever people have watched my races, they are always curious as to why I start on the diving blocks and other swimmers start in the water.
It is simply about impairment and what the swimmers’ access needs are.
Even though I take my prosthetic leg off to swim, with a bit of help I can get onto the diving block myself.
But for some of the swimmers who may not be able to stand, their only option is to start the race in the water.
Support can be given to swimmers whether they use the diving blocks or starting in the pool.
Support staff can help those on the blocks remain steady by holding them or offering them an arm to hold onto, or they can help those in the water by gripping their wrist or foot until the start of the race, but they cannot provide a propulsive movement to the swimmer.
Starting on the diving blocks does give a slight advantage to those swimmers over the athletes starting in the water, but generally the playing field evens out over the course of the race.
For some races, support isn’t just needed for the start of the race.
For Blind and vision-impaired swimmers, support can also be provided by a “Tapper”, a person using a soft tipped pole to signal to the swimmer when they are approaching the wall to turn and finish.
What about the swimmers with no arms at all?
Sometimes, swimmers just have to use their heads. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/Sam Barnes)
Swimming with one arm has always meant I have had to finish a race with my left hand.
And when it comes to swimming a butterfly race, the general rules state you must finish with both hands touching the wall and we one-armed swimmers must show intent to touch the wall as if we had two hands. We also must keep our shoulders level and not dip the side with the shorter arm, as this could give us an advantage.
Of course, this can be hard to judge and has sometimes resulted in disqualification of athletes – including myself at one Australian National Championships, where it was determined I hadn’t shown that intent (though I still, to this day, dispute that call!).
But what about the competitors who have no arms?
If a Para swimmer has no arms or upper limbs that are non-functional or too short to go above their head, they will complete the race if they touch the wall with any part of their upper body.
