Talk:Para-swimming classification

Ugly name
The name "Para-swimming" is imho quite ugly and not at all descriptive. It strikes me as too similar to terms such as "para-legal" or "para-medic" which denote someone who is not a "full" or "proper" qualified medical or legal professional. I know the rerm is a contraction of "Paralympic swimming" but that is not without problems either because the Paralympic Games is only one of many events at which swimmers with disabilities compete. Gramatically the term is also problematic - it is the person (swimmer), not the activity (swimming), that is classified.

I'd like to propose that the article title (and relevant terminology within the article) be changed to Disabled swimmer classification or IPC swimming classification which refers to the organisation whose classification system it is.

Further I like to suggest that all articles related to sport for disabled athletes should try as far as possible to avoid this type of "Para- " terminology. Although such a proposal should happen at WikiProject level, it would be useful if participants here could share their thoughts on the topic. Roger (talk) 14:14, 18 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Disability swimming is fine, but disabled not so much. There is a move away from disabled as it defines a person, where the word disability does not.  The term para-swimming is the one I've seen used more in sources.  I'm not a huge fan of either in any case, because I don't think disabled is what most people associated visual impairments, les autres and intellectual disability. IPC swimming is not what I've seen used, and it doesn't quite work because you have para-swimming in local and state, national competitions and the commonwealth games. --LauraHale (talk) 23:21, 18 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Here in Australia, we'd usually either use "multi-class swimming", or "SWD" - swimmers with disability. I can live with 'para-swimming', but it's one of those terms I read online but never hear spoken (and yes, I *am* a SWD). Another SWD I know - former international - strongly dislikes the term. They tweeted "why aren't you saying 'Cameron Lesley (swimming), not Cameron Lesley (para-swimming)? Para-swimming isn't even a thing". (I feel about the same about 'para-athletics'. Unnecessary, ugly, made up word - do the able bods want to separate themselves from us? It's athletics. It's swimming. Regardless of whether your arms and legs are present and fully functional. That said, I'm happy to call myself a "paratriathlete"...) Sportygeek (talk) 11:52, 15 January 2013 (UTC)


 * On the other hand, the shooters seem to get a kick out of being called "para-shooters". Hawkeye7 (talk) 12:20, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

S15, SM15, S15
Why is the S15 hearing loss class not mentioned? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.87.162.173 (talk) 12:56, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Para-swimming classification. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120815080227/https://www.paralympic.org.au/sports-amp-classification/summer-sports/summer-sports to http://www.paralympic.org.au/sports-amp-classification/summer-sports/summer-sports

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 15:20, 9 May 2017 (UTC)