Hogarth, Luke and Burkett, Brendan and van de Vliet, Peter and Payton, Carl (2020) Maximal fully-tethered swim performance in Para swimmers with physical impairment. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Perfor- mance, 15 (6). ISSN 1555-0273 Downloaded from: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624727/ Version: Accepted Version Publisher: Human Kinetics DOI: https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2019-0515 Please cite the published version https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk Maximal fully-tethered swim performance in Para swimmers with physical impairment Luke Hogarth1, Brendan Burkett1, Peter Van de Vliet2 and Carl Payton3 1 School of Health and Sport Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. 2 Medical and Scientific Department, International Paralympic Committee, Germany. 3 Musculoskeletal Science & Sports Medicine Research Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom. Corresponding author: Luke Hogarth (
[email protected]) School of Health and Sport Sciences University of the Sunshine Coast Australia Text-only word count: 4077 Abstract word count: 249 Number of figures and tables: 4 Number of references: 25 1 Maximal fully-tethered swim performance in Para swimmers with physical impairment Abstract Purpose: The assessment of swimming propulsion should be a cornerstone of Paralympic swimming classification. However, current methods do not objectively account for this component. This study evaluated the swimming propulsion of swimmers with and without physical impairment using a 30 s maximal fully-tethered freestyle swim test. Methods: Tethered forces were recorded during maximal fully-tethered swimming in eighty competitive swimmers with (n = 70) and without (n = 10) physical impairment. The relationships between absolute and normalised tether forces and maximal freestyle swim speed were established using general additive models.