LONDON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Following is an A-Z of swimming at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, which will officially open on Aug. 29:
Anchor - The final swimmer in a relay event.
Backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly - Three of the four competitive racing strokes at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Freestyle is the other stroke.
Classes - There are 10 classes for swimmers with a physical impairment. Class 1 swimmers have an impairment which affects their swimming of a stroke the most. Class 10 swimmers have an impairment which affects their swimming of a stroke the least. There are three classes for swimmers with a visual impairment (11 to 13) and class 14 is for swimmers with an intellectual impairment (learning disability).
Drafting - To swim just behind another competitor in an adjacent lane to take advantage of the watery slipstream created by his or her wake.
Events - The shortest Paralympic swimming event is 50m - one length of the pool. The longest event is 400m - eight lengths of the pool.
Freestyle - An event in which swimmers may use any stroke they choose, usually the crawl. In the medley events, freestyle means any stroke other than backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.
Gold - There will be 148 gold medals contested at London 2012. There are 67 events for women and 81 events for men.
Heats - All swimmers race in groups of up to eight at a time. The top eight qualifiers from the heats go through to the finals.
IPC - International Paralympic Committee - the governing body of sports for athletes with a disability.
INFO - The place media go for all the Paralympic sport news, flash quotes, results, biographies and much more.
Jessica - Jessica Long from the United States was born in Siberia, Russia. She was adopted from a Russian orphanage at the age of 13 months and moved to the USA. LONG won three golds at the Paralympic Games at Athens 2004 and four golds, one silver and one bronze at Beijing 2008.
Kick - The leg movements of a swimmer. From February 2011, a breaststroke kicking movement is no longer permitted in butterfly.
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