S11 Women’s 50 Free Paralympic Final Protested in Tokyo, Re-Swim Required

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)
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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.

Day 3 Finals Recap

The S11 women’s 50 free final from day three, which featured three of the fastest times in history, has been protested and will require a re-swim, cancelling out all previous results.

According to Netherland News Live, Dutch swimmer Liesette Bruinsma filed the protest. She claimed that Chinese swimmer Li Guizhi‘s arm had collided with hers over their shared lane-line, causing her to change directions in her lane and crash twice on the opposite lane-line.

S11 features the most severe visual impairments of the three visual impairment classes (S11-S13), making such complaint and re-swim approval reasonable. The re-swim has yet to be scheduled.

Claiming an unofficial World best in the protested final was China’s Ma Jia, hitting the wall at 29.46. Guizhi swam a personal best of 29.66 while Cyprus’ Karolina Pelendritou unofficially swam the fastest European time ever at 29.80.

Bruinsma finished in fourth place behind the trio at 30.43. During the preliminaries, Bruinsma put up a slightly faster time of 30.26, dropping a few hundredths from her 30.32 entry time.