2018 World Para Swimming World Series calendar announced

Lignano Sabbiadoro in Italy added to schedule as number of host cities increase to six 23 Oct 2017

Italy's Monica Boggioni and Brazil's Daniel Dias have won the first World Para Swimming World Series titles.

By IPC

Following a successful opening season World Para Swimming (WPS) has announced on Monday, 23 October, the calendar for the 2018 World Series. The new season has six confirmed host cities across Europe and the Americas – one more than in 2017 – and will run from March to June.

Lignano Sabbiadoro in Italy is the new addition to the World Series, with around 300 Para swimmers expected to take part in the event from 23-26 May. The other host cities are the same as the opening season: Berlin, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; Indianapolis, USA; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Sheffield, Great Britain.

The World Series was created to bring together some of the biggest competitions on the global calendar with the world’s best swimmers in action. It also enables National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) and National Federations (NFs) to better plan and develop their own programmes, by having access to competitions where rules and regulations are applied consistently.

“The World Series was created to offer athletes, fans and all those involved in Para swimming a regular competition calendar with important events outside the World and Regional Championships. It has given us the possibility to work in closer contact with Local Organising Committees, NPCs and NFs exchanging experiences and knowledge in areas such as competition management, education and classification. We are looking forward to another great season,” said the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Summer Sports Director, Ryan Montgomery.

The 2018 calendar can still have one more city included as WPS is in negotiation to take the World Series for the first time to Asia.

“World Para Swimming is in discussions with possible hosts in Asia and we hope we will have good news for the next season,” said WPS manager, Tracy Glassford. “We are extremely happy with the results achieved this year and to have Italy added to our competition calendar in 2018. Our aim now is to make the World Series even more global, reaching cities in other continents.”

For the 2018 series WPS wants to encourage swimmers to compete in more than one event. If athletes swim in more than one World Series competition, their two best World Series Performance Scores will be added up. To help achieve this, the calendar has been adjusted by dates and regions to help athletes and NPCs plan their competition schedules.

During the season, all athletes’ results at each edition are calculated using a standardised points system via an online virtual competition platform. This ensures that the overall WPS World Series winner is the best performing athlete over the duration of the series, meaning that every performance counts. Rankings are published after every competition.

For further information on the World Series Rankings please click here.

Brazil’s Daniel Dias and Italy’s Monica Boggioni won the individual men’s and women’s titles at the 2017 World Series. Chile’s Alberto Albarza and Kazakhstan’s Zulfiya Gabidullina topped the the S/SB 1-3 High Support Needs rankings.

Australia’s Lakeisha Patterson won the women’s junior title while Great Britain’s Jordan Catchpole was the winner in the men’s junior. The National Paralympic Committees’ title went to the British team.

The 2018 World Series calendar:

Copenhagen, Denmark