2020 TOKYO SUMMER PARALYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Wednesday, August 25 – Friday, September 3, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 9 AM / Finals: 5 PM (Local time)
- Event Page
- All The Links
- Full Aquatics Schedule
- Start Lists / Live Results
- Day 1 Prelims Recap
- Day 1 Finals Recap
EXPLANATION OF PARA CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
- There are 14 classifications for Paralympic swimmers, typically denoted as “S” followed by a number.
- “SB” designates an athletes classification for breaststroke events
- “SM” is for individual medley events
- Athletes with physical impairments are classified in S1-S10, SB1-SB9, and SM1-SM10 with numbers 1-10 ranging from more severe activity limitations to less severe limitations.
- Athletes with visual impairments are classified in S/SB11-13.
- Athletes with intellectual impairments are classified in S/SB14.
- The Paralympics are not the “Para Olympics” or anything similar. The International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee are separate organizations with separate leadership and separate events that happen to have a partnership to organize their crowned jewels more efficiently.
Prelims: 3 Paralympic Records
Australia’s Liam Schluter cracked the first record of the meet in the S14 men’s 100 fly by posting a time of 58.38 to set a new Paralympic record. This lasted minutes until Brazil’s Gabriel Bandeira swam a 56.78 in heat two. But it was Great Britain’s Reece Dunn who had the last laugh in prelims, setting the record at 55.99 to claim the top spot going into finals.
In the women’s S14 100 fly, Hong Kong’s Yui Chan set the Paralympic record at 1:07.20 in heat one, but the saga of minutes-old records continued. In heat two, RPC’s Valeriia Shabalina (the World Record holder in the event) took 1.83 seconds off Chan’s Paralympic record.
America’s Elizabeth Marks broke the S6 women’s 50 free Paralympic record from 2016 with a time of 33.16 and came within .40 of the world record.
Finals: 2 World Records and 8 Paralympic Records
Australia’s William Martin took down his teammate Brenden Hall‘s 2012 S9 men’s 400 free Paralympic record by winning gold (4:10.25).
Brazil’s Bandeira out-touched Paralympic record holder Dunn by .30 to win the S14 men’s 100 fly and set a new Paralympic record time of 54.76. He was three-tenths off the world record, a time Dunn set in 2019 (54.46).
RPC’s Shabalina crushed both her world record and Paralympic record in the S14 women’s 100 fly to win gold by more than a second (1:03.59).
RPC’s Roman Zhdanov broke the SB3 men’s 50 breast world record, previously held by Italy’s Efrem Morelli, by one second with a time of 46.49 to win gold.
Yelyzaveta Mereshk of Ukraine defended her Rio 2016 title in the S6 women’s 50 free by out-touching Marks by .04 and setting a new Paralympic record of 33.11. Marks had set the record at 33.16 in prelims.
Belarus’ Ihar Boki dominated the S13 men’s 100 fly, winning gold with a time of 53.80 to take .05 off his own Paralympic record and coming within .08 of his world record.
Carlotta Gilli of Italy won the S13 women’s 100 fly by setting a Paralympic record of 1:02.65, beating the previous record by more than half a second. World record holder Gilli led a 1-2 finish for Italy that was completed by Alessia Berra (1:05.67).
Italy broke another Paralympic record in the S5 men’s 200 free where Francesco Bocciardo won gold with a time of 2:26.76.
All in all, Paralympic records were broken in 8 events on day 1. But, there was a total of 15 swimmers who cracked Paralympic record times.
Day 1 Medal Table
| RANK | NATION | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  AUSTRALIA (AUS) |
4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| 2 |  RPC (ROC) |
3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| 3 |  Italy (ITA) |
2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 4 |  Ukraine (UKR) |
1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 5 |  Brazil (BRA) |
1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 |  Belarus (BLR) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 |  Chile (CHI) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 |  China (CHN) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 |  Israel (ISR) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 |  Singapore (SIN) |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 |  Great Britain (GBR) |
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 12 |  Spain (ESP) |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 13 |  Japan (JPN) |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 14 |  France (FRA) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 |  Hungary (HUN) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 |  Netherlands (NED) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 |  United States (USA) |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 18 |  Canada (CAN) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 |  Greece (GRE) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 |  Mexico (MEX) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 |  Uzbekistan (UZB) |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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Bandeira UW after the wall was really superb and gave him the victory