2016 RIO PARALYMPIC GAMES
- Wednesday, September 7 – Sunday, September 18, 2016
- Swimming: Thursday, September 8 – Saturday, September 17, 2016
- Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Prelims 9:30 AM / Finals 5:30 PM (local time)
- IPC World Records
- Live stream links: NBC / IPC
- Schedule/Results
S13, Women’s 400m freestyle
Team USA’s Becca Meyers is the reigning world champion, but ranked second in the world to Ukraine’s Anna Stetsenko. However, Meyer’s personal best is also the world record. Meyers, who trains at North Baltimore Aquatic Club with Jessica Long, home of Michael Phelps, is a distance swimmer at heart and has not been tested in 2016, but she will be ready for this race.
S11, Men’s 50m freestyle
Bradley Snyder, of Team USA, took silver to Bozun Yang of China at the 2012 London Games. Snyder is ranked first in the world this year, but he will have to stay off the lane lines to beat Yang. Snyder, a blind swimmer, struggles with hitting the lane line with his stroke. All swimmers in this classification must wear opaque goggles and must try to stay in the center of their lane to maintain speed. There is no penalty for hitting the lane line, but it will slow you down. There is little margin for error in a 50m freestyle.
S10, Men’s 100m butterfly
Andre Brasil, of Brazil, considers the 100m butterfly his signature event, but he fell to Ukraine’s Denys Dubrov at last year’s IPC World Championship. Brasil also lost to Dubrov’s teammate Maksym Krypak in Berlin this past June, 2016. Krypak was first classified in the Berlin meet.
Both he and Dubrov swam on the able-bodied Ukrainian National Team. Dubrov’s personal best, if he swims anything close to it in Rio, will crush Brasil’s world record by several seconds. Information regarding Dubrov and Krypak’s disabilities has not been made public.
S9, Women’s 100m freestyle
Michelle Konkoly of Team USA broke two world records (S9 50m and 100m freestyle) at theUSA Paralympic Trials in June. Konkoly did not make the London Paralympic team, but continued to train and won silver at the 2015 IPC World Championships in the 100m freestyle. Konkoly will have to beat the current Paralympic and world champion, Ellie Cole of Australia.
Konkoly reports that these Games will be her first and last as she has been accepted to medical school and plans to matriculate in 2017. With South Africas Natalie Du Tout retired from the S9 class, these events will be up for grabs.
S7, Women’s 50m butterfly
Cortney Jordan, of Team USA, has not won a gold medal in the Paralympic Games since Beijing. She won four silver medals and a bronze in London and she was second in this event at the 2015 IPC World Championships to New Zealand’s Nakita Howarth. Cortney, currently ranked second in the world to Howarth, may call it a career after Rio as she has accepted a position as a 4th grade elementary school teacher and will begin teaching immediately after the Rio Games.
McKenzie Coan of Team USA is currently ranked 5th in this event and may sneak in for a medal.
Yo Ian Silverman — what do you make of all the out right cheating and IM going on the Rio?
See Silverman’s open letter to the IPC. Also, it would be great if Swim Swam posted Silverman’s article on classification because he talks about how the medical records of these athletes are not checked or authenticated. The Ukrainians are much like Konckoly, once genuinely injured but since recovered. We literally watched Dubrov regain strength and extension from one meet to the next until now he is not impaired in the water. The other Ukrainian being in this is a total joke. The IPC destroyed the momentum of the movement with these ridiculous games. Real disabled athletes can win a gold, record books rewritten and those records will stand even if the Ukrainians are later kicked out, and the empty stands.… Read more »
I would love to see Lakeisha’s medical records with her cocktail of highly unlikely medical conditions.
No reputable neurologist could possibly attest to that lot given her complete lack of impairment in the water and extremely variable presentation on land.
CP with onset age about 13, early onset PD- would be youngest ever “recorded”, epilepsy etc.
Really have to wonder if she has even seen a neurologist. IPC classifiers would not have a clue if medical records were falsified.
Konkoly off to med school after having recovered from her injury? When was she last classified? Shaking my head…
Konkoly was only classified once, in 2011 after her injury in 2011. Timed perfectly for London. She was injured and recovered.
shaking my head…she is a cute kid, good swimmer and I am sure she is having a fantastic time in Rio. My legally blind kid (20/200-400 on EVERY medical record since she was old enough to cooperate) is judged NE and cannot compete as a disabled swimmer. US NGB won’t say anything since they will be called out too for this and other examples. Time to call Paralympics a wrap — really a shame though. Pathetic…
Coaches need to step up and demand that their chef de mission challenge the classifications on the two Ukrainians. This is unacceptable. And it has been known all year, and last year. Sven Decaesstecker sounded out right proper about it when Dubrov took down his 200IM record in Eindhoven. Others have stood up and said something and there is no way in heck this is either by the rules or ethically/morally right. This needs to be stopped. Dubrov broke records with the S10 100m butterfly and the times from him and Krypak are obscene in this class. Just wrong.
Dubrov and Krypak are making a mockery of these games. Why are the IPC and the mainstream media doing nothing about it? Disgusting.
Along with the main culprits representing IM from Australia …. Maddison Elliott and Lakeisha Patterson. It is beyond me why the IPC have not addressed IM. I find it very difficult to believe that they viewed 16 cases in swimming and could not prove 1 of them. Lies. They didn’t want to find IM, so they didn’t. I have no clue how to engage main stream media. It’s all ooohs and aaahs & inspirational stuff. No one seems willing to ask the tough questions. If you have any ideas or media contacts, please do share. Stronger together and all that.
Perfect paralympian HA HA HA what a joke. If only you knew.
day 4 was the worst for USa only one bronze medal after pretty solid day 3. Day 5 it looks like some solid medal chances. Snyder and Myers, Konkoly. Jordan hope she wins this.