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.
Benoit Huot is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer, who has won nine Paralympic Games gold medals for Canada, primarily in the freestyle and butterfly strokes.
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 also won over 50 world championship medals.
Trischa Zorn is an American Paralympic swimmer. Blind from birth, she competed in Paralympic swimming. She is the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games, having won 55 medals, and was inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2012. She took the Paralympic Oath for athletes at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta.
Matthew "Matt" Benedict Walker MBE is a British swimmer who has participated in four Paralympic Games, winning eleven medals. He competes in the S7, SM7 (medley) and SB7 (breaststroke) classifications.
Australia has participated officially in every Paralympic Games since its inauguration in 1960 except for the 1976 Winter Paralympics.
Daniel de Faria Dias is a Brazilian Paralympic swimmer. Having learnt to swim in 2004 after being inspired by Clodoaldo Silva at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, he entered his first international competition two years later winning five medals. He competed in a wide range of swimming events at the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Paralympics and won 27 medals, including 14 gold medals.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has participated in every summer and winter Paralympic Games.
Brazil made its Paralympic Games debut at the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, sending representatives to compete in track and field, archery, swimming and wheelchair basketball. The country has competed in every edition of the Summer Paralympics since.
Following the success of the first ever 1976 Winter Paralympics in Örnsköldsvik four years earlier, Norway was selected to host the Paralympic Games in 1980.
Rick Pendleton, OAM is an Australian Paralympic swimmer from Sydney. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, his fourth Games.
Mike Kenny, MBE is a retired British swimmer. He won 16 gold medals and two silvers over four Paralympic Games, making him the second most successful British Paralympian of all time. He twice retained his gold medals in three swimming events, breaking numerous world records in the process.
Monica Vaughan is a retired British athlete and multiple gold medal-winning paralympic swimmer. She was Britain's most successful Paralympian at the 1976 Games in Toronto, winning five gold medals in swimming and a silver medal as the only woman in the British volleyball team. She returned for the 1980 Games in Arhnem, winning a further four gold medals and a silver.
Kenya competed at the 1980 Summer Paralympics in Arnhem, Netherlands. The seventeen member strong tem competed in athletics, weightlifting, lawn bowls and table tennis, claiming a gold medal and two silver medals. Lucy Wanjiru 's gold in the Women's Javelin 3 event was the first gold earned by a Kenyan woman at the Paralympic Games.
Tommy Taylor was a British Paralympic athlete who won sixteen medals across five sports, including ten gold medals. Taylor was treated by Ludwig Guttmann after an accident in 1956 caused severe paralysis. He went on to compete at numerous Paralympic Games, finding particular success in para table tennis from Rome 1960 to Arnhem 1980. Eight of Taylor's gold medals came in table tennis, along with one in snooker and one in lawn bowls.
Robin Hugh Surgeoner is a British retired swimmer. He won nine gold medals across three Paralympic Games competing as a British Paralympian in C4 events. Surgeoner was one of the original members of the British Paralympic Association committee. He now works as a Swim Coach, as an inclusion empowerment consultant and musician.
Josée Lake is a Canadian paralympic gold medallist swimmer, thalidomide survivor, and president of the Thalidomide Victims Association of Canada.
Pilar Javaloyas is a Spanish paralympic athlete who competed in Para swimming. She won eleven medals at the 1980, 1984, and 1988 Summer Paralympics.
Ruth Lamsbach is a German paralympic athlete and multiple medalist at the Paralympic Games.
Chris De Craene is a Belgian paralympic athlete, and para swimmer. She competed at the 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1992 Summer Paralympics. She won three medals, one silver and two bronze.
Great Britain 
