With the second largest number of athletes and events at the Games, Swimming is one of the most popular Paralympic sports.<br /><br />Competition dates<br />Thursday 30 August -- Saturday 8 September 2012<br /><br />Competition venue<br />Olympic Park -- Aquatics Centre<br /><br />Number of medal events<br />148: men's and women's events across a number of classifications.<br /><br />Number of competitors<br />600: 340 men and 260 women<br />Each country is limited to 34 men and 26 women, and to a maximum of three athletes in each individual event.<br /><br />Classification<br />Swimmers are classified according to how their impairment affects their ability to perform each stroke. <br />Classes are:<br />1--10: athletes with physical impairments. Class 1 swimmers' impairment has the greatest impact on their ability to perform strokes; class 10 swimmers' has the least impact.<br />11--13: athletes with a visual impairment. Class 11 swimmers have little or no sight; class 13 swimmers have limited sight. <br />14: athletes with an intellectual impairment compete in class 14.<br /><br />Breaststroke uses greater leg propulsion than any other stroke, therefore athletes with a physical impairment often have a different class for this event compared to Freestyle, Backstroke and Butterfly.<br /><br />This is also taken into account when athletes compete in the Individual Medley. This is shown by a prefix:<br />S before the class represents Freestyle, Backstroke and Butterfly events.<br />SB before the class represents Breaststroke events.<br />SM before the class represents Individual Medley events.<br /><br />The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is committed to enabling Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and to develop sport opportunities for all persons with a disability from the beginner to elite level. In addition, the IPC aims to promote the Paralympic values, which include courage, determination, inspiration and equality. For further information, please visit http://www.paralympic.org.<br /><br />To watch videos on demand from Paralympic Games and to subscribe to ParalympicSport.TV, please go to www.youtube.com/ParalympicSportTV. Also, you may follow the Paralympic Movement on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ParalympicGames or on<br />Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/paralympic.
