The Australian Paralympic Swim Team has competed at every Summer Paralympics, which started with the 1960 Summer Paralympic Games. [1]
Matthew Cowdrey at the 2012 London Games replaced Priya Cooper as Australia's most successful Paralympic swimmer, with a tally of 13 gold medals over three Paralympic Games (2004, 2008 and 2012). Cowdrey replaced Kingsley Bugarin for the record for holding the most number of medals in any sport, with 23 medals from 3 Paralympic Games (2004–2012). Jacqueline Freney won 8 gold medals at the 2012 London Games replacing Siobhan Paton as Australia's most successful Paralympic competitor at a single games.
Athlete | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|
Matthew Cowdrey | 13 | 7 | 3 | 23 |
Priya Cooper | 9 | 3 | 4 | 16 |
Jacqueline Freney | 8 | 0 | 3 | 11 |
Ellie Cole | 6 | 5 | 6 | 17 |
Tracey Freeman | 6 | 4 | 0 | 10 |
Siobhan Paton | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
Kingsley Bugarin | 5 | 8 | 6 | 19 |
Totals (7 entries) | 53 | 27 | 22 | 102 |
Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|
1960 Rome | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
1964 Tokyo | 9 | 2 | 2 | 13 |
1968 Tel-Aviv | 5 | 5 | 1 | 11 |
1972 Heidelberg | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
1976 Toronto | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
1980 Arnhem | 1 | 8 | 2 | 11 |
1984 Stoke Mandeville | 20 | 30 | 24 | 74 |
1988 Seoul | 5 | 12 | 14 | 31 |
1992 Barcelona | 10 | 12 | 13 | 35 |
1996 Atlanta | 16 | 16 | 12 | 44 |
2000 Sydney* | 14 | 15 | 21 | 50 |
2004 Athens | 6 | 14 | 15 | 35 |
2008 Beijing | 9 | 11 | 9 | 29 |
2012 London | 18 | 7 | 12 | 37 |
2016 Rio | 9 | 10 | 10 | 29 |
2020 Tokyo | 8 | 10 | 15 | 33 |
Totals (16 entries) | 136 | 160 | 157 | 453 |
Daphne Ceeney was Australia's first Paralympic Swim Team member. [2] At the 1960 Summer Paralympics, Ceeney won gold in the Women's 50m Breaststroke and gold in the Women's 50m Crawl in the "complete class 5". At the same games, she also competed in the Archery and Athletics.
The Australian Paralympic Swim team finished ninth on the medal table with a total of 2 medals. [3]
The Australian Paralympic Swim Team finished second on the medal table with a total of 13 medals at the 1964 Summer Paralympics. [6]
The Australian Swim Team won a total of 11 Medals at the 1968 Summer Paralympics finishing 6th in the Medal Standings. [7]
Men – Eric Boulter, Brian Chambers, Russell Morrison
Women – Pauline English, Pam Foley, Cherrie Ireland, Elizabeth Richards
The Australian Swim Team finished 10th place in the Medal standings at the 1972 Summer Paralympics with 9 medals: [8]
Men – Robert Faulkner, G. Green, John Hind, Roy Kubig, Brian Sullivan
Women – Pauline English, Lyn Michael, Gail Nicholson
The Australian Swim Team finished in 12th place on the medal tally at the 1976 Summer Paralympics with 10 Medals: [9]
Men - Rene Andres, Paul Bird, Peter Carroll, Gary Gudgeon, Peter Hill, Dennis Kennedy, David (Dave) Manera, David McPherson, Charlie Tapscott
Women – Carolyn Connors, Maureen Pybus
The Australian Paralympic Swim team finished in 15th place on the medal tally at the 1980 Summer Paralympics with a total of 11 Medals: [10]
The 1984 Summer Paralympics were Australia's most successful medal haul with a final tally of 74 medals. [11]
Men – Paul Bird, Craig Blackburn, Kingsley Bugarin, Malcom Chalmers, Geoffrey Fowler, David Griffin, Gary Gudgeon, Greg Hammond, Michael Kelly, Alan Morley, Michael Quinn, Wayne Ryding, Robert Staddon, Phillip Tracey, Robert Walden
Women – Helena Brunner, Lynette Coleman, Kerri-Anne Connor, Anne Currie, Therese Donovan, Rosemary Eames, Kerrie Engel, Meredith Evans, Deborah Holland, Ursula King, Tracey Lewis, Jan Miller, Mary-Anne Wallace, Carol Young
Coaches - G. Brown (Blind) Officials - J. Blackburn (Manager – Blind)
The Australian Paralympic Swim team finished in 9th position in the medal standings at the 1984 Summer Paralympics with a total of 74 medals: [12]
The Australian Paralympic Swim team finished in 14th position in the medal standings at the 1988 Summer Paralympics with a total of 31 medals: [13]
Coaches – Anne Green (Amputee), Phil Jose (Cerebral palsy), Kerry Smith (Cerebral palsy)
Officials – Ian McDowell-Jones (Vision impaired Manager), Rowenna Toppenberg (blind escort)
The Australian Swim team finished in sixth position in the medal standings at the 1992 Summer Paralympics with a total of 35 medals. [14]
The Australian Swim team finished in 3rd place in the Medal Standings at the 1996 Summer Paralympics with a total of 44 medals: [15]
A total of 51 swimmers were selected to compete in the Australian Swim Team at the 2000 Summer Paralympic Games. [11]
Medallists: [16]
The Australian Swim team finished 5th overall in the medal standings at the 2000 Summer Paralympics with 50 medals. [17]
A total of 29 swimmers were selected in the Australian Swim team to compete at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. [11]
Matthew Cowdrey, in his first Paralympic Swim Team appearance, was Australia's best performing swimmer winning 3 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals.
Swimmers:: [18]
Head coach- Brendan Keogh [18] Assistant coaches - John Beckworth, Peter Bishop, Graeme Carroll, Gwen Godfrey, Paul Simms [18] Manager - Adam Luscombe [18] Sports Scientist - Brendan Burkett [18] Support staff - Ingrid McKay (Massage Therapist), Claire Nichols (Physiotherapist), Zoe Young (Assistant Team Manager)
The Australian Paralympic Swim team finished 10th overall with a total of 35 Medals. [19]
A total of 35 swimmers were selected to compete in the Australian Swim team at the 2008 Summer Paralympics. [11] This was the largest away team since the 1996 Summer Paralympics. Matthew Cowdrey (with 5 gold and 3 silver medals) and Peter Leek (with 3 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze) were the most successful of the Australian swimmers. [20]
Many of the swimmers were new to the Paralympic team: 8 of the 17 male athletes and 11 of the 18 female athletes were competing in their first Paralympic Team. [11]
Swimmers: [11]
Staff: [11] Head coach- Brendan Keogh Assistant coaches - Graeme Carroll, Amanda Isaac, Jackie Black, Joanne Love, Rob Moon, Jon O'Neill-Shaw, Mel Tantrum, Section Manager - Melanie Jenkins Support staff- Brendan Burkett (Sport Scientist), Sacha Fulton (Sport Scientist), Claire Nichols (Physiotherapist), Vaughan Nicholson (Physiotherapist), Penny Will (Massage Therapist), Sandra Eccles (Nurse)
The Australian Paralympic Swim team finished 7th on the Medal Tally with a total of 29 medals. [22]
Swimmers::
Head Coach – Brendan Keogh [23] Section Manager – Karyn Burgess [24] Assistant coach – Jonathan O'Neil-Shaw, coaches – Robert Hindmarsh, Tom Davies, Angelo Baselo, Michael Freney, Chris Phillips, Bash Zidan
Australia finished second on the gold medal table and won a total of 37 medals.
Leading swimmers were – Jacqueline Freney won 8 gold medals, Matthew Cowdrey won 5 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal and Ellie Cole won 4 gold medals and 2 bronze medals.
Detailed Australian Results
Swimmers::
Head coach: Brendan Keogh
Team Leader: Adam Pine
Coaches' - Angelo Basalo, Jan Cameron, Harley Connolly, Nathan Doyle, Lachlan Falvey, Rick Van Der Zant, Yuriy Vdovychenko
Leading swimmers were: Maddison Elliott five medals including three gold, Ellie Cole six medals including two gold and Lakeisha Patterson six medals including two gold.
Detailed Australian Results
Swimmers::
Staff: Head coach: Brendan Keogh Team Leader: Adam Pine Coaches' - Jon Bell, Clinton Camilleri, Harley Connolly, Nathan Doyle, Kate Sparkes, Greg Towle, Yuriy Vdovychenko Support staff -
Leading swimmers were: William Martin four medals including three gold, Ben Popham and Rowan Crothers three medals - two gold and 1 silver. Ellie Cole two bronze medals resulted in her winning 17 Paralympic medals and replaced Priya Cooper as leading Australian female swimming medallist.
Detailed Australian Results
(d) Paralympic Games debut
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.
Australia sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. The country sent 167 athletes in 13 sports and 122 officials. It was the country's largest ever Paralympic delegation to an away Games. The team sent to Beijing was described as the emergence of the new generation of Australian athletes with 56 percent of the team attending their first Paralympic Games. The delegation's chef de mission was Darren Peters.
Kingsley Haldane Bugarin, OAM is an Australian Paralympic and vision impaired swimmer. He competed in five consecutive Summer Paralympics from 1984 to 2000, winning a total of five gold, eight silver, and six bronze medals. He held the Australian record for the highest Paralympic medal count until it was surpassed in 2012 by Matthew Cowdrey.
Australia has participated officially in every Paralympic Games since its inauguration in 1960 except for the 1976 Winter Paralympics.
Australia competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Games in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012. The London Games were the biggest Games with 164 nations participating, 19 more than in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games and hosted the 2000 Sydney Games. As such, the 2000 Sydney Games, regarded as one of the more successful Games, became a point-of-reference and an inspiration in the development of the 2012 London Games.
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Australia competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. It was Australia's 12th year of participation at the Paralympics. The team included 151 athletes. Australian competitors won 101 medals to finish fifth in the gold medal table and second on the total medal table. Australia competed in 12 sports and won medals in 8 sports. The Chef de Mission was Paul Bird. The Australian team was smaller than the Sydney Games due to a strict selection policy related to the athletes' potential to win a medal and the International Paralympic Committee's decision to remove events for athletes with an intellectual disability from the Games due to issues of cheating at the Sydney Games. This was due to a cheating scandal with the Spanish intellectually disabled basketball team in the 2000 Summer Paralympics where it was later discovered that only two players actually had intellectual disabilities. The IPC decision resulted in leading Australian athletes such as Siobhan Paton and Lisa Llorens not being able to defend their Paralympic titles. The 2000 summer paralympic games hosted in Sydney Australia proved to be a milestone for the Australian team as they finished first on the medal tally for the first time in history. In comparing Australia's 2000 Paralympic performance and their 2004 performance, it is suggested that having a home advantage might affect performance.
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