Tokyo 2020 organizers released the entire schedule for the upcoming Paralympic Games Friday, complementing the Olympic schedule announced last month.
The Paralympic Games follow the Olympics, beginning on August 25th and ending September 6th.
The first day of swimming is August 26th, the day after opening ceremonies. Swimming will run for ten days, through September 4th, and feature medal events every day. The event-by-event schedule is yet to be announced, and according to the Games’ website, will come out around when tickets go on sale next year.
Unlike Olympic swimming, it appears para-swimming will feature morning heats beginning at 9 a.m. and finals at 5 p.m., as opposed to nighttime heats and morning prelims.
If you’re unfamiliar with Paralympic swimming, it’s important to note that a typical day will include many more events than Olympic swimming, because events are split up by class. Swimmers are assigned a class ranging from S1-13 (or SB1 – SB13 for breaststroke and SM1 – SM 13 for IM) based on their level of impairment in order to level the playing field. So, there are separate events for not only each stroke and distance, but also each class. For example, the first night of the 2016 Paralympic Games featured 16 medal events.
‘Fair play’ means athletes’ competing against each other based on natural ability; however that is certainly NOT the case in Para-swimming. For 2020 Tokyo to have a chance of providing fair play, firstly Para-swimming especially the IPC must take the appropriate responsibility and action to stop those athletes engaging in fraudulently exaggerating their medical conditions and/or by engaging in Intentional Misrepresentation.
Sadly the problems are still occurring due to the lack proper due diligence and good governance, the current inept checks and balances are failing immensely, the relevant authorities are a toothless tiger, failing to conduct proper valid investigations and the required surveillance into those serious complaints and allegations into those athletes who are deliberately exaggerating their medical conditions and… Read more »
Good post. Does anyone actually report incidents of cheating to World Para Swimming though? If so, what format does it take, is it recorded by them and is it responded to? My biggest concern is that the IPC don’t seem to care how blatant the cheating is, they just let it go.
Well said Paul.
Para sport is doomed to failure because the athletes will not speak up because they know that is career ending, the coaches and officials are complicit with the cheating because it is a great cash cow for them, the relevant authorities are the enablers, the fans have no clue for the most part, and the media just are not interested in it except as warm and fuzzy “inspirational” feel good drivel.