How to classify the participation of people with disabilities in swimming competitions

Swimming isThe only event in which athletes with all kinds of disabilities can compete, including physical disabilities, visual impairments, spinal injuries, intellectual disabilities, and more.

Paralympic swimming events include freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and medley. Due to the limitations of physical impairment, the rules of para swimming competitions and the organization of the competition have corresponding special regulations and service requirements. Venue support personnel can only assist athletes in and out of the water alone, and cannot communicate verbally.

For those who are visually impaired, a staff member can guide them in individual and relay competitions as required. For example, after the chief referee issues a long whistle, the guide is allowed to help determine the direction before the commander gives the "all in place" command.

When a blind athlete approaches the pool wall during the competition, the guide will use a cue stick (a sponge tied to one end of the bamboo pole) to tap the athlete's back to cue it.

On August 24, the opening ceremony of the 16th Summer Paralympic Games was held in Tokyo, Japan. The Chinese sports delegation entered the 98-place order, and the flag bearers were women's wheelchair archer Zhou Jiamin and men's disabled track and field athlete Wang Hao.

The first gold medal of the Chinese swimming team in the Paralympics, Zhang Li won the women's 200-meter freestyle S5 championship, the Chinese team won the fifth gold in the Paralympics, and in the just-concluded women's 200-meter freestyle S5 final, Rio champion Zhang Li successfully defended her title with a time of 2:46.53.

It is understood that Zhang Li was born in Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province, and was diagnosed with congenital cerebral palsy at birth. At the age of 14, Zhang Li was selected for the Shaanxi Provincial Para Swimming Team. After that, he went to Kunming "Yunzhinan" Youth Swimming Club for training.

The swimming events of this Paralympic Games have a total of 10 competition days and 179 events, compared with the 35 events of the Olympic Games, the difficulty of organization and the need for personnel have increased exponentially. The swimming event exposes the most feet of the mountain, and the visual impact is also the greatest. When I saw the backstroke S1 class, the champion Israeli athlete took enough time to put most able-bodied people to shame.

The last Belarusian athlete had only one big arm left in his limbs, and he swam with this half of his arm.

For me, a bystander, the Paralympic Games are the most borderless and psychologically uninclined races. I don't care about the medal table, except for cheering for the Chinese athletes, I don't care who is the champion, in my eyes they are all champions. Instead, they pay more attention to the runners who finish at the end of the race, because even if they have the same classification, they have their own disabilities, and the final finish is the most difficult.

Watching this game is like a spiritual baptism, a good medicine to sober the world. They all work so hard, so shouldn't we able-bodied people also work harder.

To participate in the national team, people with disabilities must first meet the requirements of the national team, and the specific requirements are as follows:

1. Disabled swimmers must hold a valid disability certificate and meet the requirements of the national team;

2. Disabled swimmers must participate in para swimming competitions and obtain good results;

3. Disabled swimmers must participate in swimming training for disabled persons and obtain good results;

4. Disabled swimmers must participate in para swimming competitions and obtain good results;

5. Swimmers with disabilities must participate in the national team selection competition for the disabled and obtain good results;

6. Disabled swimmers must meet the physical fitness requirements of the national team and obtain good results;

7. Disabled swimmers must have a high sense of self-discipline and obtain good results;

8. Disabled swimmers must meet other requirements of the national team and obtain good results.

The members of the disabled national team are drawn from the top of the provinces, and only when they get the ranking in the games in each province can they be transferred to the national team to participate in the national competition, and after the game, they all return to their own provincial teams.