Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nationality | Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Riverstone, New South Wales, Australia | 29 March 1984|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Alicia Aberley (born 29 March 1984) [1] is an Australian swimmer with an intellectual disability. She represented Australia at the 2000 Summer Paralympics, where she won several medals, and is a multiple world record holder.
Aberley was born on 29 March 1984 in the Sydney suburb of Riverstone. [1] [2] Her family has lived in the Riverstone Township for several decades. In Aberley's pre-2001 swimming career, her family could not afford to attend international competitions that she participated in. Aberley could not afford a way to nicely display her many medals at her house, so they were put into storage around the house instead of being on display. [3] Alicia did not grow up with a lot of money. [3]
Aberley is a student and a journalist. [4] She attended Riverstone High School. [5] In 2000, she completed year ten at Riverstone High School and passed her year ten exams. [6]
Aberley was a single mother of a son. She later became involved with someone who helped her raise her son. She is self-employed through Amway. [4] After eighteen months of working for Amway, she became a gold level producer. [7]
Aberley started swimming in 1995. At the 1998 national championships, she finished second in the women's 100 m breaststroke intellectually disabled event. [8] She competed at the 1998 International Paralympic Committee world swimming championships in Christchurch as a member of the women's 4x100 m relay team, where she won a gold medal with her teammates; Siobhan Paton, Petrea Barker and Bernadette Morris. [9] At the 1999 Telstra Australian National Championships, she won a gold medal and broke a world record in the women's 100 m breaststroke event. [1] By 2000, she had won medals at events on many levels including local, state, national and international. In 2000, prior to the start of the Paralympics, she competed at a swimming event in Amsterdam, where she won gold medals in several events including the 100 m breaststroke and 200 m freestyle. At the same event, she won three silver medals in the 200 m individual medley and the 50 and 100 m freestyle events. [3]
As a school representative, Aberley competed in the 2000 Pacific School Games Team. This event helped with her Paralympic team selection. [5]
At the 2000 Sydney Games, she won two silver medals in the Women's 100 m Freestyle S14 and Women's 200 m Medley SM14 events and two bronze medals in the Women's 200 m freestyle S14 and Women's 50 m breaststroke SB14 events. [10] At the 2000 games, she competed in several other events in which she did not win medals. They included the 50 m freestyle event where she finished fifth, the 50 m backstroke event where she finished sixth, the 100 m freestyle event where she finished seventh, and the 50 m butterfly where she did not qualify for the final. [11]
Aberley was coached by Greg McWhirter of Baulkham Hills. [12] [13] In 2002, Aberley competed at the 2002 Telstra Australian Championships. She won the multidisability 100 m breaststroke event, with a time of 01:22.99. She represented The Hill swim club. [14] She also competed at the 2003 competition in the Women's 100 m freestyle multi-disability event. [15]
Aberley has held several world and Australian records in swimming. They include the world record for the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke events. She held the 16-year-old age world record for the 50 m, 100 m and 200 m breaststroke. Her Australian national records are for the 50 m, 100 m and 200 m breaststroke events. [3]
On 23 August 2000, she was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for world record achievements. [16] In 2000, she was named the Sportsperson of the Year by the Blacktown City Council. [17] In 2001, she was named the Telstra Swimmer of the Year with a Disability. That year, she also received a Telstra SWD (swimmers with a disability) Scholarship. [18] In December 2000, a time capsule was buried at Riverstone High School that was to be dug up by current students in 25 years time. The time capsule included newspaper articles about Aberley and Olympic torchbearer Melissa Bushby, both of whom attended the school. [19] In August 2009, she was rewarded with Platinum IBO recognition from Amway. [4]
Benjamin James Austin, OAM is an Australian Elite Athlete with a Disability (EAD) swimmer. His classification is S8.
Matthew John Cowdrey is an Australian politician and Paralympic swimmer. He presently holds numerous world records. He has a congenital amputation of his left arm; it stops just below the elbow. Cowdrey competed at the 2004 Paralympic Games, 2006 Commonwealth Games, 2008 Paralympic Games, 2010 Commonwealth Games, and the 2012 Paralympic Games. After the 2012 London Games, he is the most successful Australian Paralympian, having won thirteen Paralympic gold medals and twenty three Paralympic medals in total. On 10 February 2015, Cowdrey announced his retirement from swimming.
Marayke Caroline Jonkers is a retired Australian Paralympic swimmer and paratriathlete. She won two bronze medals at the 2004 Athens Paralympics and a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, along with a bronze medal at the 2010 Budapest ITU Triathlon World Championships.
Ellie Victoria Cole, is an Australian retired Paralympic swimmer and wheelchair basketball player. After having her leg amputated due to cancer, she trained in swimming as part of her rehabilitation program and progressed more rapidly than instructors had predicted. She began competitive swimming in 2003 and first competed internationally at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships, where she won a silver medal. Since then, she has won medals in the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, the Commonwealth Games, the Paralympic Games, the IPC Swimming World Championships, and various national championships. Following the 2012 London Paralympics, where she won four gold and two bronze medals, Cole underwent two shoulder reconstructions and made a successful return to swimming at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships, winning five medals, including three golds. She subsequently represented Australia at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. In claiming her seventeenth Paralympic medal in Tokyo, Cole became Australia's most decorated female Paralympian with six gold, five silver and six bronze medals from four Paralympic Games.
Matthew John Levy, is a retired Australian Paralympic swimmer. At five Paralympic Games from 2004 to 2020, he has won three gold, one silver and six bronze medals.
Amanda Fraser is an Australian Paralympic athlete and swimmer. She has cerebral palsy and competes in the F37 category for the physically impaired. Competing in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Summer Paralympics, she won two silver and two bronze medals, and in the 2006 World Championships, she won a gold and a silver medal. In the 2006 championships, she set a world record for discus in her classification, and was named 2006 Telstra Female AWD Athlete of the Year by Athletics Australia. Fraser now works as a personal trainer, working with people unfamiliar to a gym environment, especially women. She believes it is important for women to feel empowered and she aims to help them develop their mental and physical strength.
Elizabeth Mary Edmondson PLY is an Australian Paralympic competitor and current Australian Masters competitor in swimming. She became a paraplegic after contracting polio as a small child. She won several medals in the 1964 and 1968 Summer Paralympics. She subsequently retired from swimming, only taking up the sport again in 2006 to compete in the 2008 FINA World Masters Championships in Perth.
Lynette Margaret "Lyn" Lillecrapp, OAM is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She contracted paralytic polio at the age of two months. Lillecrapp started her competitive swimming career in 1974, and competed at the 1976 Toronto, 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Summer Paralympics.
Casey Redford is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. A Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder, she won three gold medals at the 1999 FESPIC Games, and a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney in the Women's 100 m backstroke S9 event.
Prue Watt, is a Paralympic swimming gold medalist from Australia. She has represented Australia at the four Paralympics from 2004 to 2016.
Jacqueline Rose "Jacqui" Freney is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. At the 2012 London Games, she broke Siobhan Paton's Australian record of six gold medals at a single Games by winning her seventh gold medal in the Women's 400 m Freestyle S7. She finished the Games with eight gold medals, more than any other participant in the Games.
Helena Martha Brunner, OAM, is an Australian swimmer, who won seven medals at the 1984 New York/Stoke Mandeville Games.
Rosemary Clare Elliott (1965–2002) was an Australian swimmer with one arm. She won six medals at the 1984 Summer Paralympics and broke many world records in swimming.
Teigan Van Roosmalen is an Australian Paralympic S13 swimmer. She has Usher Syndrome type 1 legally blind and Profoundly deaf. She had a swimming scholarship from the Australian Institute of Sport 2009-2012. Her events are the 100 m breaststroke, 200 m individual medley, 50 m and 100 m freestyle. She competed at the 2011 Para Pan Pacific Championships in Edmonton, where she won a gold medal in the S13 400 freestyle event. She competed at the 2008 Summer and 2012 Summer Paralympics.
Kayla Clarke is an Indigenous Australian swimmer who represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in swimming, and has medalled at the 2010 Australian Disability Age Group Nationals, and 2010 International Paralympic Swimming World Championships, 2009 Queensland State Championships, 2009 Queensland Secondary School Titles, and 2009 Global Games. She competes in a number of events, including the 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.
Tanya Huebner is an Australian swimmer. She has represented Australia at the 2012 London and the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Tiffany Thomas Kane, is a retired Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, winning a gold and three bronze medals, and at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, winning a further two bronze medals.
Timothy Hodge is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, where he won two silver and one bronze medals.
Paige Leonhardt is an Australian swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, where she won a silver medal.
Katie (Kate) Wilson is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.