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Full name | Chantel Louise Wolfenden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | 15 January 1986 39) Lithgow, New South Wales | (age||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Chantel Louise Wolfenden, OAM [1] (born 15 January 1986) [2] is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. Born in the New South Wales town of Lithgow, [2] she started to swim at the age of five as therapy for cerebral palsy. She underwent three operations to cut and lengthen her Achilles tendon. [3]
She competed at the 2002 IPC Swimming World Championships in Mar Del Plata, Argentina winning a gold medal in the women's 400m Freestyle S7 and two silver medals in the women's 100m Backstroke and women's 100m Freestyle S7 events.
At the 2004 Athens Games, she won a gold medal in the Women's 400 m Freestyle S7 event, for which she received a Medal of the Order of Australia, [1] a silver medal in the Women's 100 m Freestyle S7 event, and four bronze medals in the Women's 100 m Backstroke S7, Women's 200 m Individual Medley SM7, Women's 4 × 100 m Freestyle 34 pts and Women's 4 × 100 m Medley 34 pts events. [4]
She swam for the Fairmead Swim Club in Bundaberg, Queensland and was coached by Paul Simms. [3] Between 2002 and 2006, she was an Australian Institute of Sport Paralympic swimming scholarship holder. [5] She was also a Queensland Academy of Sport scholarship holder. [5]