![]() 2012 Australian Paralympic team portrait of Overton | |||||||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Esther Overton | ||||||||||||||||
Nationality | ![]() | ||||||||||||||||
Born | Launceston, Tasmania, Australia | 26 March 1990||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Freestyle, butterfly, backstroke | ||||||||||||||||
Classifications | S1, SB1, SM1 | ||||||||||||||||
Club | Burnside | ||||||||||||||||
Coach | Shelly Camy | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Esther Overton (born 26 March 1990) is a former Australian swimmer. She competed at the 2008 and the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
Overton was born on 26 March 1990 in Launceston, Tasmania. [1] [2] She currently resides in Enfield, South Australia. [3] As of 2012 [update] , she is a student at the University of Adelaide where she is working on a Bachelor of Commerce. [1]
Overton has arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, [1] [2] a medical condition which "causes muscle weakness and a tendency for bones to break easily". [4] It also results in joints that are immobile. [2] Her arm has been broken more than forty times, she has coped with multiple bulging discs and had six surgeries on her knee since 2008. [2] [5] Because of her disability, she has required the use of an electric wheelchair and is in constant pain. [2]
Overton is a S1 classified swimmer. [1] [5] [6] When swimming, she cannot use her arms and uses her head instead of hands on the touchpad. [2] She competes in the 50 metres backstroke, freestyle. [2] [5] Overton is a member of the Burnside Swimming Club. [5] She is coached by Shelly Camy, who became her coach eighteen months before the start of the 2012 Summer Paralympics. [4] Part of her training includes Pilates. [2]
Overton started swimming as physiotherapy when she was a baby, [3] and started competing at twelve years old. [2] She made her national team debut at the 2006 IPC World Championships in Durban, [1] [3] winning a silver medal in the 50 metres butterfly and backstroke events. [7] She competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in two events. [1] [2] [5] [7] Competing in the 50 metres backstroke event, she finished fifth. [5] In the 50 metres freestyle, she finished sixth. [5] Seven weeks before the 2008 Games, she had a collapsed lung and a day before the start of the Games, she broke an arm. [1]
Overton competed at the 2010 Australian National Championships. Prior to the event, she had applied for an exemption so she could wear a swimsuit that had a zipper. When this was declined, she tried to put on a legal swimsuit and broke her arm in the process but she continued competing with the injury. [3] She competed at the 2010 Paralympic World Championships. [3] At the 2011 Para Pacific Championships, she finished third in the 50 metres backstroke event. [1] In October 2011, she got a new swimming coach. [5] Going into the 2012 National Championships, she was dealing with three bulging spinal discs [5] as a result of swimming into a wall three weeks before the event. [8]
As a twenty-two-year-old, [4] Overton was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the 50 metre backstroke S2 and the 50 metre freestyle S3 events. [4] [5] [6] [8] [9] She was one of three South Australians representing Australia in swimming at the Paralympics. [2]
In April 2013 at the age of 23, Overton retired from professional swimming. She was forced to consider her future after a lack of competitor interest in her classification led to the cancellation her event at the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships. [10]
She is an inductee of the Swimming South Australia Hall of Fame. [11]
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.
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.
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.
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.
Timothy Antalfy is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in swimming and won a bronze medal.
Taylor Corry is an Australian S14 swimmer. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, she won two silver medals.
Jeremy McClure is an Australian swimmer, triathlete and motivational speaker. He competed at four Paralympics - 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London and 2016 Rio.
Ahmed Kelly is an Iraqi-born Australian Paralympic swimmer. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, his third games, he won the silver medal in the Men's 150 m individual medley SM3.
Matthew Anthony "Matt" Haanappel, is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He was born in Wantirna, Victoria and resides in the far eastern suburbs of Melbourne. He has cerebral palsy right hemiplegia. Haanappel has represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships, the 2014 Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships, the 2016 Summer Paralympics, and the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He represents the Camberwell Grammar School Aquatic club.
Sean Russo is an Australian swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Grant Patterson is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, his second games, he won a silver and bronze medal.
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.
Katherine Rose Downie is an Australian Paralympian. Kat first represented Australia in 2011. Kat represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in swimming and was a member of both the Gold medal Women's 34 point 4 x 100 free and 4 × 100 medley relay teams. Kat placed fourth in both her pet events the 100 backstroke and 200IM.
Kara Leo is an Australian swimmer. She has been selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the S14 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke swimming events.
Esther Morales Fernández is an S10 swimmer from Spain.
Emily Beecroft is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She won a silver and bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Alice Tai, is a British paralympic swimmer. Tai competes in the SB8, SM8 and S8. She has represented Great Britain at European and World Championships and at the Commonwealth and Paralympic Games, gold medals at all levels.
Jenna Jones is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Isabella Vincent is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. At the age of fifteen, she was the youngest Australian swimmer selected for the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, where she won a silver and bronze medal.