 2016 Australian Paralympic team portrait | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Jenna Jones | ||||||||||||||
| Nickname | JJ | ||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  Australia | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 19 January 2001 Maitland, New South Wales | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle | ||||||||||||||
| Classifications | S12 | ||||||||||||||
| Club | USC Swim Club | ||||||||||||||
| Coach | Harley Connolly /Casey Atkins | ||||||||||||||
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] and the 2024 Paris Paralympics.. [2]
Jenna Jones was born on 19 January 2001, the fifth of six children; she has four older brothers and a younger sister. [3] When she was in kindergarten, she was diagnosed with rod-cone dystrophy, [4] a rare degenerative eye disease.
She attended St Columba's High School. [4] [5] and finished High School Certificate (HSC) at TAFE before she made the life-changing decision to move interstate to the Sunshine Coast.
She played a variety of sports, but as her eyesight deteriorated, she settled on swimming. [3] 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. [4]
Jones competed in her first Australian Open Championships that year, aged 13, and set eleven age records, [3] 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. [4] She went on to win her first national short course title in the 50 metre backstroke in November 2015. [3]
Although she was targeting the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo rather than the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, [4] 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, [6] and on 14 April 2016 was named a member of the Australian Paralympic swimming squad. [7]
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. [8] 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." [9]
At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Birmingham, England, she finished 4th in the Women's 50 m freestyle S13. [10] [11]
At the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships, Manchester, England, she won the silver medal in the Women's 100 m backstroke S12.
At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, she competed in three events - Women's 100 m freestyle S12 (8th), Women's 100 m backstroke S12 (6th) and Women's 100 m breaststroke SM10 (6th).
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.
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.
Karolina Pelendritou is a visually impaired swimmer from Cyprus. She has won gold medals and broken records in national and international games as well as winning three gold medals, a silver and two bronze over four Paralympic Games. Due to her achievements she is known as the "Princess of the Pool".
Hannah Russell, is a British Paralympic swimmer competing in S12 classification events. In 2012, she became British S12 champion in the 100m backstroke and qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games where she won a silver in the 400m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m butterfly. In the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, she won the gold medal in the 100m backstroke with the time of 1:06:06 earning her the World Record.
Ana Garcia-Arcicollar Vallejo is a teacher and a vision impaired B2/S12 swimmer from Spain. She has a vision impairment because of a congenital disease. She competed at the 1996 Summer Paralympics, winning a bronze in the 4 X 100 meter medley 49 points S11 - S13 race, the 200 meter breaststroke race and the 100 meter backstroke race. She competed at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, Australia, winning a silver in the 400 meter freestyle race, and a bronze in the 100 meter butterfly race. She competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, winning a gold in the 400 meter freestyle race, and a bronze in the 100 meter butterfly race. She competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics, winning a silver in the 100 meter butterfly race. She also raced at the IBSA World Games in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She raced at the 2006 World Swimming Championship in Durban, South Africa and the II IBSA World Blind Championships in 2003 in Quebec, Canada. She set world records in the 2003 races in the 4 X 50 meter Freestyle S11 - S13 race, the 800 meter freestyle S12 race and the 4 X 50 meter medley S11 - S13 race.
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.
Emily Beecroft is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and 2024 Paris 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.
Braedan Jason is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
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.
Liam Bekric is an Australian Paralympic swimmer with a vision impairment. Bekric represented Australia for the first time at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Tess Routliffe is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer and winner of multiple world championship and Paralympic medals. She represented Canada at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she won the silver medal in the women's 200 m individual medley SM7.
Colleen Young is an American swimmer. She is a three-time Paralympian earning a bronze medal at the 2016 Paralympic Games, as well as a bronze and a silver medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games. She has also earned multiple gold, silver and bronze medals at World Championships. She competes in the Paralympic class S13. In 2016 she set a Pan-American record in the 100m breaststroke.
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.
