Purpose: The purposes of this study were to analyze velocity (V), stroke le
ngth (SL), and stroke rate (SR) values during the 100-m freestyle competiti
ve events in top level male and female swimmers with a disability (DS) acco
rding to the international Functional Classification System (FCS) and to co
mpare the results obtained with those of able-bodied swimmers (ABS). Method
s: DS (N = 119) and ABS (N = 32) were tested in real competitive conditions
during European and French swimming championships in the A finals of the 1
00-m freestyle. Results: V and SL increased significantly (P < 0.01) accord
ing to the level of ability from class S3 up to S10. SL values were signifi
cantly different (P < 0.01) between males and females in each class group.
On the contrary, SR was not significantly different between genders, betwee
n each class group of FCS, and also with ABS. The major result of this stud
y was that stroke length was related to velocity whereas stroke rate was no
r. The differences in weekly training time between each class of DS were no
t significantly different and showed that performances seemed to be more re
lated to the various locomotor disabilities than to the training status. Co
nclusions: These findings, which are discussed, showed that stroke index (S
I = V.SL) could be used as a sensitive criterion to assess the swimmer with
a disability in relationship to his classification level.