Swimming is one of the world’s most popular sports for athletes with an intellectual impairment.
Virtus provides a full programme of strokes and long course distances at world, regional Championships and the Virtus Global Games.
Swimming is also on the Paralympic programme, with a number of medal events on offer for athletes who compete in the S14 classification.
Swimmers interested in competing at a high level first need to contact their National Federation.
History
Swimming has been on the Virtus programme since the first ‘World Games for Athletes with an Intellectual Disability’ were held in Harnosand, Sweden, in 1989. It has consistently been an extremely popular sport due to the accessibility of pools in most countries.
The sport was also one of the first to feature at a Paralympic Games. When the first events for athletes with an intellectual impairment were held at Sydney 2000, swimming was one of the sports included alongside athletics and basketball.
World Championships have been held by Virtus since 2004, with a variety of smaller competitions and regional Championships are held or sanctioned every year. Swimming is one of the sports contested at the Virtus Global Games, held every four years.
In 2017 the World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico, were the first to feature two new trial eligibility groups. These were for athletes with Down’s syndrome and autism.
Details of upcoming competitions can be found on the events page.
Rules And Regulations
Virtus competitions are run according to the World Para Swimming rules and regulations.
For more information on the sport specification and rules click here (section 7.9)
Records
Results
All results from 1989 through to the present day are available at results, rankings and records pages.
Swimming Committee
- Chair – Dave Harman (Ecuador)
- Americas – Celeste Sychterz (USA)
- Europe – Ivan Volosach (RUS)
- Asia – Arthur Lee Yan Hong (SIN)
- Africa – Ina Fowler (RSA)
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Reece Dunn- The Golden boy from Tokyo 2020 Paralympics
Reece Dunn is an athlete with an intellectual Impairment from Great Britain. He won 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and emerged as the most decorated athlete with an Intellectual Impairment. He was also the most successful British athlete. -
Presentation of the Virtus para equestrian video competition 2021 (senior section)
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Presentation of the Virtus para equestrian video competition 2021 (youth section)
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Breanna Clarke (USA) Gold Medallist Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games
Breanna Clarke (USA) Gold Medallist Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games 400m (T20) shares her Games experience. -
MakingInvisibleVISIBLE - Celebrating Tokyo 2020 Paralympians in Intellectual Impairment class events
The Paralympians who competed at Tokyo2020 in Athletics, Swimming, and Table Tennis in the intellectual impairment class events. 63 Medals. 120 Athletes. You shine like stars!
Photo credit: OIS Photos -
Athletes with Intellectual Impairment at Tokyo2020 Paralympic Games
At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, athletes with intellectual impairments competed in 22 medal events across Athletics, Swimming, and Table Tennis. This is a short highlights reel of some of the images from Tokyo2020, thanks to OISPhotos and ITTF. -
Todd "the HULK" Hodgetts
Before leaving Tokyo, Todd the Hulk shared with Virtus some of his thoughts.
Tokyo will be Todd's third consecutive Paralympic Games, the most any Australian athlete with an intellectual impairment has ever competed at. -
Virtus - Our place in the human race
Across the world, there are between 156-250 million people who live with a disability that is not visible. Source: WHO Report on Disability 2011.
Intellectual Impairment knows no boundaries. It cuts across the lines of racial, ethnic, educational, social, and economic backgrounds, and it can occur in any family.
There is a solution - SPORTS.
Virtus: World Intellectual Impairment Sport for 35 years has been on a mission to drive the development of elite sport worldwide for athletes with an intellectual impairment. But, like our athletes, Virtus has been invisible, mainly making a visible global impact every four years during the Global Games, which qualifies some ID athletes to compete at Paralympics in Athletics, Swimming, and Table Tennis only.
It's our time, to balance the scales and see millions of people have opportunities and access to sport, advocate for more inclusion of athletes and sports, and change the world for athletes with ID.
Virtus World Intellectual Impairment Sport, “Virtus” is the brand name of the International Federation for athletes with intellectual impairment and is a founding member of the International Paralympic Committee. Registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in the UK (1173901)