Para swimming is an adaptation of competitive swimming for athletes with disabilities, governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). It made its Paralympic debut at the Rome 1960 Games, initially for athletes with spinal cord injuries. Eligibility significantly broadened over the decades, incorporating visually impaired athletes from 1976 and intellectually impaired swimmers from 2000, making it one of the largest and most inclusive Paralympic sports today.
While largely following FINA rules, para swimming features specific adaptations, such as varied starting positions (diving, sitting, or in-water) and "tappers" for visually impaired athletes to signal turns and finishes. To ensure fair competition, a comprehensive classification system groups athletes based on the nature and severity of their impairment. This system uses categories like S1-S10 for physical disabilities, S11-S13 for visual impairments (with S11 swimmers using blackened goggles), and S14 for intellectual impairments, often combined with prefixes like 'S' for freestyle or 'SB' for breaststroke.