Fantastic summer of sport continues at Swimming Worlds

Following on from athletics World Champs, Montreal, Canada is hosting the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships which will be livestreamed on ParalympicSport.TV

MONTREAL, Aug. 2, 2013 /CNW/ - The next exciting stop for para-sport this summer will be the 2013 IPC Swimming Worlds in Montreal Canada from 12-18 August, which will be streamed live from the Parc Jean Drapeau at ParalympicSport.TV every evening.

Montreal 2013 follows a hugely successful athletics World Championships in Lyon, France which saw athletes break 49 world records across 207 medal events. Russia topped the table with 53 medals, closely followed by the USA with 52 and Brazil with 40.

At the 2013 swimming Worlds, around 500 athletes from nearly 60 countries will compete in the biggest gathering of international swimmers since London 2012.

Speaking about the growth in para-sport and the continuing momentum from London, Director of Communications and Media at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Craig Spence said:

"Lyon 2013 was a record breaker in so many ways and the huge attendance of media and fans showed that para-sport has entered the mainstream in countries where it never has before.

"We are really excited to be heading to Montreal and are confident that the swimming Championships can be just as gripping, with some big rivalries and top names competing."

One of those top names is seven time Paralympic champion from Brazil, Andre Brasil, who will face stiff competition from local-boy Benoit Huot from Montreal.

Between them, Huot and Brasil have a combined 16 world titles in the S10 classification, but new kid on the block Ian Silverman of the USA will be looking to take victory from both men, beating Huot just last April in Minneapolis and taking the Paralympic crown in the 400m freestyle in London.

Headlining the Brazilian team however, will be the countries' most successful athlete of the last decade - Daniel Dias. Dias left London with six gold medals and four world records and exited the 2010 Swimming World Champs in Eindhoven, the Netherlands with seven coveted world titles across all S5 disciplines. On his road to Rio, Dias looks unstoppable and already set a new world record of 1:17.70 in the 100m butterfly in Berlin in May.

Great Britain's Eleanor Simmonds will be looking to retain her four World Championship titles. Simmonds also dazzled her home crowds in the Aquatics Centre in London last year winning two golds in the S6 classification.

Jessica Long, fresh from winning a prestigious ESPY Award in America just a few weeks ago, will go head to head with Russian rival Olesya Vladykina. Despite winning six world titles in 2010, Long was unable to beat Vladykina in the 100m breaststroke S8 in either London or Eindhoven.

148 world records were broken at the Aquatics Centre in London nearly one year ago, showing the growing quality of the field in swimming.

The evening sessions of the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships will be livestreamed at www.youtube.com/ParalympicSportTV from 12-18 August. Coverage will also be shown in the UK by Channel 4, some European Broadcasting Union Countries and in Brazil by Globo-Sport TV.

Tickets can be purchased from as little as 11.50 CAD from billets-tickets.montrealipc2013.com

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement. The IPC supervises the organisation of the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games, and serves as the International Federation for nine sports, for which it oversees and co-ordinates the World Championships and other competitions, including swimming.

The IPC is committed to enabling Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and to developing sport opportunities for all persons with a disability from the beginner to elite level. In addition, the IPC aims to promote the Paralympic values, which include courage, determination, inspiration and equality.

SOURCE: Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC)

Lucy Dominy, IPC Public Relations and Campaigns Manager on e-mail: [email protected] or call [phone]. Alternatively, please visit www.paralympic.org/swimming or www.ParalympicSport.TV.

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