 2016 Australian Paralympic team portrait | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Jenna Jones | ||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Faulconbridge Falcon | ||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  Australia | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 19 January 2001 | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle | ||||||||||||||
| Classifications | S12 | ||||||||||||||
| Club | USC Swim Club | ||||||||||||||
| Coach | Nathan Doyle | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Jenna Jones (born 19 January 2001) is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. [1]
Jenna Jones was born on 19 January 2001, the fifth of six children; she has four older brothers and a younger sister. [2] When she was in kindergarten, she was diagnosed with rod-cone dystrophy, [3] a rare degenerative eye disease. She played a variety of sports, but as her eyesight deteriorated, she settled on swimming. [2] She uses tappers to alert her when she is approaching the end of the pool. She initially had trouble with competitive swimming, as the wash from other swimmers exacerbated the vertigo she felt due to her visual impairment. In 2014, a new coach, Nick Robinson, thought he could help. Under his tutelage, her times improved significantly over the following six months. [3]
Jones competed in her first Australian Open Championships that year, aged 13, and set eleven age records, [2] winning two silver and two bronze medals. At the 2015 Open Championships, she won a silver medal in the 50 metre backstroke event despite battling illness. Then at the 2015 Australian Age Championships, she won six gold and three silver medals, breaking nine Australian and ten New South Wales records in the S13 class, the swimming classification for blind swimmers. [3] She went on to win her first national short course title in the 50 metre backstroke in November 2015. [2]
Although she was targeting the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo rather than the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, [3] at the 2016 Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide, she met the Rio qualifying times in the 50, 100 and 400 metre freestyle, 100 metre backstroke and 100 metre breaststroke events, [4] and on 14 April 2016 was named a member of the Australian Paralympic swimming squad. [5]
In 2016, Jones competed at the Rio 2016 Paralympics in five different events. She qualified and finished seventh in the 50 metre freestyle S13 and 100 metre backstroke S13 finals, but didn't qualify for the finals of the 100 metre freestyle S13, 200 metre individual medley SM13 or the 100 metre breaststroke SB13. [6] Coach Robinson worked with Jones in the lead up to Rio to reduce her nausea and vertigo and instructed Jones "But it's your choice, You've gotta start controlling it. In life, you've got to learn to control pain, fear and everything." Reflecting on her preparation to Rio, Jones states "When I am really fit, I feel like I am flying." [7]
At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Birmingham, England, she finished 4th in the Women's 50 m freestyle S13. [8] [9]
As of 2016 [update] , Jones lived in Faulconbridge, New South Wales, [2] and was attending St Columba's High School. [3] [10]
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.
Dame Sophie Frances Pascoe is a New Zealand para-swimmer. She has represented New Zealand at four Summer Paralympic Games from 2008, winning a total of eleven gold medals, seven silver medals and one bronze medal, making her New Zealand's most successful Paralympian. She has also represented New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games.
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.
Prue Watt, is a Paralympic swimming gold medalist from Australia. She has represented Australia at the four Paralympics from 2004 to 2016.
S13, SB13, SM13 are disability swimming classifications used for categorising swimmers based on their level of disability. Jane Buckley, writing for the Sporting Wheelies, describes the swimmers in this classification as having: "Swimmers who are the most sighted but are considered to be blind according to the IBSA B3."
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.
Sean Russo is an Australian swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Bethany Charlotte Firth, is a Northern Irish Paralympic swimmer. Since 2014 she has competed for Great Britain; previously, Firth had represented Ireland. A six time Paralympic gold medalist, she has won gold in her specialist event - the 100 metres backstroke - for both Ireland at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and Great Britain at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics. These were in addition to the Mixed 4 x 100 metres freestyle relay S14 at the 2020 Games, and 200 metres medley and 200 metres freestyle for Great Britain at the 2016 Games, where she was the nation's most successful Paralympian with three golds and a silver medal. She competes in the S14 classification for athletes with an intellectual impairment.
Kirby Cote is a blind Canadian Paralympic swimmer.
Brian David Hill is a S13 Canadian para-swimmer who has competed in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 Summer Paralympics and the 2007 Parapan American Games. He had won five gold medals, three silver medals and 3 bronze medals in his international career. Hill started swimming as a child and competitive swimming at the age of nine. He has won the British Columbia Blind Sports Award and Athlete of the Year Award.
Jesse Aungles is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2016 Summer Paralympics and the 2020 Summer Paralympics
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.
Tiffany Thomas Kane, is a retired Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, winning a gold and three bronze medals, and at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, winning a further two bronze medals.
Timothy Malcolm Disken, is an Australian paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships and won bronze in the men's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, he won a gold medal in the men's 100m freestyle S9, a silver medal in the men's S9 50m freestyle and a bronze medal in the men's 200m individual medley SM9. He also competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
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.
Katja Dedekind is an Australian Paralympic vision-impaired swimmer and goalball player. She won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games and two bronze medals at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Brandon Schuster is a Samoan swimmer who represented Samoa at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He holds multiple Samoan records in swimming.
Liam Bekric is an Australian Paralympic swimmer with a vision impairment. Bekric represented Australia for the first time 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.
