| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | British |
| Born | 2 May 1996 Shrewsbury, England |
| Home town | Newport, Shropshire, England |
| Sport | |
| Country |  Great Britain |
| Sport | Track and field |
| Disability class | T34 |
| Club | Coventry Godiva Harriers/Red Star AC |
| Coached by | Ian Mirfin (club) Paula Dunn (national) |
Ben Rowlings (born 2 May 1996) is a British Paralympic athlete who competes in sprint and middle-distance events in the T34 classification. [1]
Rowlings was born in Shrewsbury, England in 1996. [2] He was delivered with the umbilical chord wrapped around his neck causing oxygen starvation, which resulted in Rowlings developing cerebral palsy.
Rowlings first became involved in competitive sport as a teenager when he took up swimming. He competed at national level but switched to wheelchair racing at the age of 15 after he went to a British Athletics talent identification day. After gaining his classification in 2011 as a T34 athlete, Rowlings began competing at national meets. [3] By 2013 Rowlings was appearing at senior meets and entered his first IPC Grand Prix. The next year he represented Great Britain at his first major international event, the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships in Swansea. There, he entered three events, taking the bronze medal in the 800m T34 in a time of 1:56.11. [3]
In 2015 Rowlings was selected to again represent Great Britain, this time at the IPC World Championships in Doha. Although he failed to take any medals, he came fourth in both the 400 metres and 800 metres races. 2015 also saw Rowlings set four British records in the same meet, when he broke the 100m, 200, 400, and 800m records at the IPC Grand Prix in Nottwil, Switzerland. [4] The following year, in the build-up to the Summer Paralympics in Rio, Rowlings attended the 2016 European Championships in Grosseto. He medaled in all three events, improving on all his times from Swansea two years ago. He won the bronze medal in the 100m, 400m and 800m T34. [3] In July Rowlings was named as part of the Great Britain team that would be travelling to Rio to compete in the Summer Paralympics. [5]
Rowlings competed in athletics at the 2020 Summer Paralympics. [6]
Henry Manni is a Finnish athlete and paracanoeist who has competed and medaled in both fields at World Championship level. In Paracanoeing he won a bronze medal in the K-1 200 m TA event at the 2010 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Poznań. Manni later switched to athletics as a wheelchair sprinter in the T34 classification. In 2013 he won a bronze in the World Championships in the 200m event, following this with four golds in the 2014 European Championships and three further World championship medals in 2015.
Rheed McCracken is an Australian Paralympic athletics competitor. He named the 2012 Junior Athlete of the Year as part of the Australian Paralympian of the Year Awards. He represented Australia at the 2012 London Paralympics, 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, where he won three silver and two bronze medals.
Rosemary Little is an Australian Paralympic athlete. She won a bronze medal in wheelchair racing at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, and has also competed in handcycling. She competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, her third Games, where switched from wheelchair racing to shot put.
Hannah Lucy Cockroft is a British wheelchair racer specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification. She holds the world records for the 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres, 800 metres and 1500 metres in her classification and the Paralympic records at 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres and 800 metres. Competing for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, she won two gold medals. She won three further gold medals at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Paul John Blake is a British athlete who competes in T36 middle-distance events. Blake competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics where he won a silver and bronze medal in the 400m T36 and 800m T36 respectively. He followed this up with two gold medals at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships, both in his favoured 800m event.
Evgeny Shvetsov is a Paralympian track and field athlete from Russia competing mainly in category T36 sprint and middle-distance events. A triple gold medal winner at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Shvetsov set three world records in his class between 2012 and 2013.
Samantha May Kinghorn is a Scottish World Champion wheelchair racer and TV presenter.
Chad Perris is a vision impaired Australian athlete, born with albinism. He specialises in the 100m and 200m events. He has won two silver and two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships and a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. He competed at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Ella Azura Pardy is an Australian Paralympic athlete who competes in the T38 100m, 200m and long jump. She represented Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in long jump and the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in athletics where she won a bronze medal and the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Maria Lyle is a para-athlete from Scotland competing mainly in T35 sprint events. At the age of 14 she set a world record in the 200m sprint, a record she has broken on several occasions. In 2014, she qualified for the IPC Athletics European Championships in Swansea and won gold in both the 100m and 200m T35.
Melissa Nicholls is a British wheelchair athlete specialising in middle-distance events in the T34 classification. Nicholls competed in the 2012 Summer Paralympics and won a silver medal in the 800m at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships.
Moatez 'Mo' Jomni is a British Paralympic athlete who competes mainly in category T53 sprint events and middle-distance events.
Karé Adenegan is a British wheelchair athlete specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification. She was classified as a disability athlete in 2013.
Laura Sugar is a British Paralympic athlete who competes in sprint events under the T44 classification. Before taking up athletics Sugar represented Wales at field hockey captaining the under-20s team. She has now switched to canoeing.
Ahmad Almutairi is a Kuwaiti para-sport athlete who competes as a T33 classification track and field athlete and as a wheelchair basketball player, both at national level. Despite the fact that Almutairi held the Paralympic world record for his classification in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m events, major world titles eluded him due to the fact that his classification was under-represented and he was forced to compete against less severely disabled athletes in the T44 class. He eventually won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
James Michael Apsley Turner, is an Australian Paralympic athlete and soccer player with cerebral palsy. He has represented Australia as part of the Australia Paralympic soccer team, the ParaRoos, and was its player of the year in 2013. At the 2016 Summer Paralympics, he won the Men's 800m T36 in a world record time of 2:02.39. At the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London, he won three gold medals; he followed this up with two gold medals at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai and a gold and silver medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Isaac Towers is a Paralympian athlete from England competing in category T34 sprint and middle-distance events. Towers won gold to become European champion in the 800m (T34) event in 2016 and qualified for the Summer Paralympics in Rio.
Hamide Kurt Doğangün is a Turkish Paralympian athlete competing in the T53 disability class sprint events of 100m and 400m, T52/T53 class middle-distance event of 800m as well as T53/T54 class 4 × 400 m relay event.
Alexa Halko is a parasport athlete from the United States competing mainly in T34 classification sprint and middle-distance events. She competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, where she won a bronze and two silver medals for her country, and followed this with a second bronze five years later at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Joyce Lefevre is a Belgian Paralympic athlete who competes in international level events. She competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, in 100m T34, and 800m T34.
