| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | June 20, 1987 | ||||||||||||||
| Home town | Toms River, New Jersey, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Paralympic swimming | ||||||||||||||
| Disability class | S9 | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Christie Raleigh Crossley (born June 20, 1987) is an American Paralympic swimmer. She will represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Raleigh grew up playing several sports, including playing in the boy's leagues for basketball and baseball, where she was the only girl on the team. In middle school she made the decision to focus on swimming, with dreams of making the Olympic team. At Toms River High School South, she was a state champion and became the second freshman in state history to become the state record-holder in any swimming event. [1] She moved to Florida when she was 15 to attend Pine Crest School, where she was a four-time high school state champion in Florida. [2]
After graduating from Pine Crest, she received a scholarship to swim for Florida State University. She competed there for two years, earning multiple accolades including Athletic Coast Conference (ACC) Freshman of the Year, and two back-to-back National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) All-American honors. An opportunity arose to finish out her NCAA career at Auburn University. Instead, she got married, and three months later was pregnant with her first daughter. She then transferred to Rowan University where she won an NCAA Division III national title in the butterfly. [3] [4]
On March 12, 2023, at the Citi Para Swimming World Series, Raleigh Crossley set a world record in the 50 metre backstroke S9 event with a time of 32.01. [5] She then represented the United States at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships, where she won a gold medal in the 100 metre backstroke S9 event. [6]
On June 30, 2024, she was named to team USA's roster to compete at the 2024 Summer Paralympics. [7]
In 2007 Raleigh Crossley was hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street and suffered three herniated discs in her neck and one in her lower back. In 2008 she was involved in another accident where she was hit by a car as a pedestrian. The blunt force trauma triggered a non-cancerous tumor to start developing in her brain, and as a result she began to lose function on the left side of her body. [8]
On December 12, 2018, while on a ski trip with her family, her son picked up what he thought was a snowball and struck her in the head. The snowball was actually a ball of ice, and when it knocked her in the head she sustained a traumatic brain injury. She experienced paralysis on her left side due to the bleeding of a previously unknown blood tumor in her brain. On January 7, 2019, she had the tumor removed. [3] [9]
Raleigh Crossley is married and has three children. [10] They are non-binary using she/her and they/them pronouns. [3]
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.
Jessica Tatiana Long is a Russian-American Paralympic swimmer from Baltimore, Maryland, who competes in the S8, SB7 and SM8 category events. She has held many world records and competed at five Paralympic Games, winning 29 medals. She has won over 50 world championship medals.
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.
Lakeisha Dawn Patterson, is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She won medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, she won Australia's first gold medal of the Games in a world record time swim in the Women's 400m freestyle S8. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, she won the gold medal in the Women's 400 m Freestyle S9. Patterson has a been selected to compete at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, France
Timothy Hodge is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2016 and the 2020 Summer Paralympics, where he won two silver and one bronze medals. He has a been selected to compete at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, France.
McKenzie Coan is an American swimmer. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, she swam the 400m Freestyle in the S8 category. Coan was one of four S8 category swimmers chosen to compete for Team USA at the games. She later had her breakout games in the 2016 Summer Paralympics, where she would go on to win 3 gold medals in the category S7 50, 100, and 400M Freestyle races, with an additional silver medal in the 34-point women's 4 × 100 m Freestyle relay. In the process of getting her gold medal in the 50M Freestyle she also set a new Paralympic Record.
Marin Morrison was an American para-swimmer who competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. She began swimming at age two and started to have seizures at that age after a child kicked her head. Morrison broke two school swimming time records as a freshman at Collins Hill High School, and was third in the 100-yard freestyle competition at the Georgia state Class AAA championship in early 2005.
Hannah Elizabeth Aspden is an American Paralympic swimmer. She was the youngest swimmer on Team USA to medal at either the Olympics or Paralympics in 2016. During the 2019–20 season at Queens University of Charlotte, Aspden broke two American Paralympic Short Course Meters Swimming records in both the 100-Meter Backstroke and the 100-Meter Freestyle.
Colleen Young is an American swimmer. She won a bronze medal at the 2016 Paralympic Games. She also won bronze medals in the 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke at the 2015 World Championships She competes in the Paralympic class S13. In 2016 she set a Pan-American record in the 100m breast.
Gia Pergolini is an American Paralympic swimmer who represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Jamal Hill is an American Paralympic swimmer. He represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Leanne Smith is an American Paralympic swimmer who represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Summer Schmit is an American Paralympic swimmer who represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Olivia Chambers is a visually impaired American Paralympic swimmer.
Taylor Winnett is an American Paralympic swimmer who will represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Grace Nuhfer is an American Paralympic swimmer who will represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Evan Wilkerson is an American Paralympic swimmer. He will represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Yaseen El-Demerdash is an American Paralympic swimmer. He will represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
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