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| Born | 1963-1964 Montreal, Canada | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Josée Lake (born 1963or1964) is a Canadian paralympic gold medallist swimmer, and thalidomide survivor. She was president of the Thalidomide Victims Association of Canada in 2019. [1]
Lake was born in Montreal, in the Villeray neighbourhood, [2] in 1963. She has no right hand or foot, and her left foot has no arch and only three toes. After her swimming career she worked as a social worker in the area of suicide prevention. She has three children. [3]
Lake started to learn to swim at the age of five, having to travel long distances to find classes which would accept a child with a disability. [2]
At the 1980 Summer Paralympics she won gold in Women's 50 m Backstroke J, Women's 50 m Breaststroke J and Women's 50 m Freestyle J. [4]
At the 1984 Summer Paralympics she won gold in the Women's 100 m Freestyle A9, the Women's 50 m Backstroke A9, the Women's 50 m Breaststroke A9 and the Women's 150 m Individual Medley A9. [4]
She retired from swimming in 1986. [3]
In 2012 she was inducted into Swimming Canada's Circle of Excellence, an honour given to the "greatest Canadian swimmers of all time". [5]
In 2019, Lake became president of the Thalidomide Victims Association of Canada, a group for people suffering the effects of the drug thalidomide which was given to pregnant women and caused birth defects. She has said that she hopes "that TVAC will continue to use its voice to promote pharmacovigilance, so that the thalidomide tragedy will never be forgotten. I believe that by sharing our history, as Thalidomide survivors, TVAC can help make our world a much safer place for unborn children." [1]
Medley swimming is a combination of four different swimming strokes into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as a medley relay.
Jessica Tatiana Long is a Russian-born 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 six Paralympic Games, winning 30 medals. She has won over 50 world championship medals.
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.
Heather Frederiksen MBE is a retired British Paralympic swimmer. She is former world record holder in the women's S8 100 m backstroke, 50 m freestyle, 100 m freestyle, 200 m freestyle and 400 m freestyle events. As of June 2017, she still holds European records in the S8 200 m and 400 m freestyle. Frederiksen is a two time Paralympic champion in the 100m backstroke S8 classification, and has won eight Paralympic medals in all.
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.
Casey Redford is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. A Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder, she won three gold medals at the 1999 FESPIC Games, and a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney in the Women's 100 m backstroke S9 event.
S4, SB3, SM4 are para-swimming classifications used for categorising swimmers based on their level of disability. Swimmers in this class have coordination problems affecting all four of their limbs, or have movement in their arms, some trunk function and no leg function. Events this class can participate in include 50m and 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke, 50m Butterfly, 50m Breaststroke, and 150m Individual Medley events. The class competes at the Paralympic Games.
Helena Martha Brunner, OAM, is an Australian swimmer, who won seven medals at the 1984 New York/Stoke Mandeville Games.
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.
Taylor Corry is an Australian S14 swimmer. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, she won two silver medals.
Grant Patterson is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, his second games, he won a silver and bronze medal. At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, he won two bronze medals.
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.
Mary Elizabeth Fisher is a New Zealand para swimmer. She represented New Zealand at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London and the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, combined winning two gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze medal.
Nikita Stevie Howarth is a New Zealand para-cyclist and para-swimmer. She became New Zealand's youngest ever Paralympian after being selected for the 2012 Summer Paralympics, aged 13 years 8 months. She again represented New Zealand at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, where she won the gold medal in the women's 200 metre individual medley SM7 and the bronze medal in the women's 50 metre butterfly S7.
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.
Jenna Jones is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2024 Paris 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.
Anastasia "Nastiya" Gorbenko is an Israeli competitive swimmer. She competes in the backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and medley. She has won 8 World and European championships gold medals, competed at 2 Olympic finals, broken most of the Israeli national records for women and mixed relays, and is considered to be Israel's greatest swimmer of all time. In February 2024, Gorbenko won a silver medal at the Doha World Championships in the women's 400 meters individual medley. Gorbenko represented Israel at the 2024 Summer Olympics in swimming in the 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 4x200m freestyle relay, and mixed 4x100m medley relay.
Abigail "Abi" Tripp is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer. She has won bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games and the World Para Swimming Championships, and won silver at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships. She has represented Canada at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics, and will compete in swimming at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Madeleine "Maddie" McTernan is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and 2024 Paris Paralympics where she won relay silver medals.
