The 2009
IPC Swimming European Championships was an international swimming competition. It was held in
Reykjavik,
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
and ran from 18 to 24 October. Around 650 athletes from 37 different countries attended.
Great Britain finished top of the medal tables with 39 golds and 94 medals, both greater than any other country.
The 2009 Championships was the first IPC-run event where intellectual disability athletes were allowed to compete since the
2000 Summer Paralympic controversy.
In the 2000 Sydney Games cheating by the Spanish basketball team resulted in the banning of all events for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
Venue
The Championship was staged at the
Laugardalslaug
Laugardalslaug (, "pool of Laugardalur") is a public thermal baths and swimming pool complex located in the Laugardalur district of Iceland's capital Reykjavík. With an indoor Olympic-size swimming pool, a 50-metre-long outdoor swimming pool, a 4 ...
located in the north of Reykjavik.
Events
Classification
Athletes are allocated a classification for each event based upon their disability to allow fairer competition between athletes of similar ability. The classifications for swimming are:
*Visual impairment
**S11-S13
*Intellectual impairment
**S14
*Other disability
**S1-S10 (
Freestyle,
backstroke
Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disadvantage of swimm ...
and
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...
)
**SB1-SB9 (
breaststroke)
**SM1-SM10 (
individual medley
Medley is a combination of four different swimming styles—backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle—into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as a medley relay.
Individual m ...
)
Classifications run from S1 (severely disabled) to S10 (minimally disabled) for athletes with physical disabilities, and S11 (totally blind) to S13 (legally blind) for visually impaired athletes. Blind athletes must use blackened goggles.
Schedule
Medal table
Great Britain led the 2009 Championships in both medals won and number of gold medals.
:
Multiple medallists
Participating nations
Below is the list of countries who agreed to participate in the Championships and the requested number of athlete places for each.
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Footnotes
;Notes
;References
External links
Official web-site
{{World Para Swimming European Championships
International sports competitions hosted by Iceland
World Para Swimming European Championships
Swimming in Iceland
IPC Swimming European Championships
IPC Swimming European Championships
Sports competitions in Reykjavík
October 2009 sports events in Europe
2000s in Reykjavík