Everything You Need To Know To Watch Swimming At The Paralympic Games In Paris

The Olympic warmup is over, and the Paralympic Games are upon us. The Opening Ceremony was held Wednesday in Paris, and the U.S. Paralympic swim team starts racing on Thursday.

The U.S. ranked fifth in the overall medal table at the last Paralympic Games in 2021 in Tokyo. Only China and the Russian Paralympic Committee had more than Team USA’s 15 gold medals.

So who’s competing this year? How do you watch? And what are you watching for? 

We answer your biggest questions below.

First Things First, Who’s On The Team?

The 2024 U.S. swim team consists of 21 women and 12 men who were selected following three days of team trials back in June. Twenty-three have been to at least one Paralympic Games already, including Jessica Long, who’ll be making her team-leading sixth Paralympic experience. One of the most decorated athletes in the United States, the Baltimore native is looking to add to her total of 29 Paralympic medals.

Mallory Weggemann, Evan Austin, McKenzie Coan and Collen Young will be competing at their fourth Paralympic Games, and they’ve won a combined 16 medals, including eight gold.

Elizabeth Marks, Hannah Aspden, Lizzi Smith and Natalie Sims are all competing in their third Paralympics, while 14 members of the team are competing in their second including Tokyo gold medalists Anastasia Pagonis, Gia Pergolini and Morgan Stickney. 

But don’t sleep on the first timers making their Paralympic debuts. The U.S. team has some ultra talented newbies, including 2023 world championships breakout stars Noah Jaffe and Olivia Chambers, fellow world champion Christie Raleigh Crossley and Ali Truwit, a former Yale swimmer who’s competing in her first major international meet after losing part of her leg in a shark attack just over a year ago. And yes, you read that right. Just over a year ago. 

How Do I Watch The Action?

Fans will have no shortage of viewing options after that, as NBCUniversal networks — including NBC, USA Network and CNBC — along with streaming platform Peacock are set to show an unprecedented 1,500 hours of live programming. This includes the return of the popular Gold Zone and Multiview channels that were such a hit a few weeks ago during the Paris Olympics.

Para swimming kicks of on Thursday and runs through Saturday, Sept. 7. The sport is slated to receive daily TV coverage, often at 5 a.m. and again at 11:45 a.m. on USA Network, CNBC and NBC. Some of the finals will be combined with coverage of other sports, but swimming die-hards can catch all the action in the pool via streaming options.

Click here to find the full schedule. And click here for the overall schedule of what’s on NBC and partner networks and streaming. 

How Do I Impress My Friends With My Insider Knowledge About How Para Swimming Works?

Paralympic sports are getting more and more attention and media coverage every year, but there are still folks who might wonder what the heck SB9 means, or how in the world visually impaired swimmers don’t run themselves smack into the wall.

Swimmers are classified according to the degree to which their disability impacts their function, and World Para Swimming recognizes three different types of impairments:

• Physical (including impaired muscle power, limb deficiency and short stature)

• Intellectual

• Visual

Athletes with different disabilities compete against one another, because the classes are based on the impact the disability has on the individual’s swimming, not the disability itself. So if your friends are wondering why, for instance, an athlete with an amputation is racing against an athlete with a form of paraplegia, you can lay it all out. 

Then there are the three sport classes:

• S, for freestyle, butterfly and backstroke

• SB, for breaststroke

• SM for individual medley

Those letters are followed by numbers to indicate the degree of impairment, with the lower the number indicating the greater the impact of the disability. Classes 1 through 10 are for physical impairments, with 10 being the least degree of impairment and 1 being the greatest.

Classes 11 through 13 are for swimmers with visual impairments, 11 being the greatest amount of vision loss and 13 being the least.

Swimmers in the 14 class are those with intellectual impairments that typically impact pattern recognition, sequencing and memory, or cause the athlete to have a slower reaction time, which impacts performance.

And What About How Visually Impaired Swimmers Don’t Hit The Wall? 

Ah, yes. You’ll notice a number of different assists going on throughout Para swimming. One of the most obvious are the tappers, who are people who literally reach out with long sticks and tap the swimmers as they’re approaching the wall. Check out visually impaired Paralympic gold medalist Anastasia Pagonis’ video on making her tappers.

Not every visually impaired swimmer uses a tapper — another technique for knowing where swimmers are in relation to the wall is counting strokes — but those in the S/SB11 classification are required to have them.

You may also see assists for other athletes, including people who help them get on the blocks, stabilize them at the start or get them into the water. 

Falling Records, Title Defenses And Legendary Performances

Whenever the best in the world are gathered, look for records to fall. Then you have athletes who’ll be looking to defend their titles, as Mallory Weggemann will in the 100 backstroke S7 and the 200 IM SM7.

Make no mistake, though, the 200 IM is her baby, and now that she has an actual baby — she and her husband welcomed baby Charlotte last year — she’ll be looking to capture her third consecutive Paralympic gold medal in the event, and her first as a mama.

Also looking for her third consecutive gold in the same event is McKenzie Coan, who’ll be looking to defend her title once again in the 400-meter freestyle S7.

Other returning gold medalists in individual events from Tokyo include Anastasia Pagonis (400 freestyle S11), Gia Pergolini (100 backstroke S13), Jessica Long (100 butterfly S8, 200 IM SM8), Hannah Aspden (100 backstroke S9), Morgan Stickney (400 freestyle S8), Elizabeth Marks (100 S6) and Evan Austin (50 butterfly S7).

Aspden, Long and Stickney were also part of the U.S. team that won gold in the women’s 4x100 medley 34 points relay.

Here’s Paralympic.org’s look back at the top moments in swimming of the Tokyo Paralympics, as voted on by fans worldwide. Hint: three U.S. swimmers made the top 10. 

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.