Why is swimming included in the Olympics and Commonwealth Games?

I watched a FINAL last night where the Sri Lankan swimmer had only one arm!!

He was miles behind the rest when it finished, but got a really loud cheer from all present. 

That doesn't say much for the overall calibre of Sri Lankan swimmers does it, when a one armed man is the best they had to send to the games.

I also wonder why boxers don't wear head gear. One bang on the head, which is the ultimate purpose of the sport, with nobody going down, has resulted in quite a few mandatory 'standing 8' counts.

Swimming and  Gymnasticts are the 2 sports in which people
can win numerous medals for doing slightly different
versions of the same thing, so if you want your kid
to be a multi medallist you know in which direction to
point them.

In the disabled swimming yesterday, there was a butterfly race in which one guy had one arm and no legs below the knees.  Unsurprisingly he was miles behind the guy in the middle lane who had two arms and two legs.
Seriously, how do they categorise these disabled swimmers.  Made a laughing stock of what I guess is supposed to be a serious sporting event.

tbh, I wish the BBC wouldn't keep on about disability sport so much.  The standard isn't always that high, the coverage is patronising and, well, boring most of the time.

They should have an old miserable bastards Olympics.

I'd sign up for that.

The sports people want to watch have been sold off to the highest bidder. BBC is left with all the carp. Hard to avoid it as it pollutes the "news" too but doing my best.

The BBC don't keep on about disability sport, at least not away from the Commonwealth Games.

They didn't cover the Paralympic Games in any depth, and don't do the disabled events at World Championships where they have able-bodied rights, such as the Rowing and Cycling.

Too busy $punking license payers cash up the wall catering for the petrolheads

Channel 4 had the paralympics.

There is much less interest in para sport, therefore the TV rights will be dirt cheap so it can hardly be down to a lack of cash - especially when sharing the coverage of F1 with Sky saved around £30m a year.

Maybe it is the lot of the BBC to give air-time to some of the less exposed 'minority' sports. They don't have much choice in the matter, anyway. As soon as it becomes financially viable to secure broadcasting rights for certain sports/events they will be acquired by profit-based companies.

enjoyed that 10,000 m women's race. Great finish.

Nowadays I can't stand any sports which are subjective eg gymnastics, fecking synchronised swimming, even boxing especially after watching the super heavyweights today(two knock downs & all 3 judges scored the round 10-9)

I thought running around in a sequin costume waving a ribbon tied to a stick had been copyrighted by Ken Masters..............apparently not.