Matthew "Matt" Benedict Walker MBE (born 25 April 1978 in Stockport, England) [1] is a British swimmer who has participated in four Paralympic Games, winning eleven medals. He competes in the S7 (butterfly and freestyle), SM7 (medley) and SB7 (breaststroke) classifications. [1] [2]
Walker's first international medal came with a bronze in the 100 m breaststroke at the 1997 European Championships in Spain. [1] Since then he has gone on to win four further European Championship medals and eight World Championship medals. [3] He also won a bronze medal in the 50 m freestyle and finished fourth in the 100 m freestyle, [4] at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, where he was the only disabled swimmer representing England. [5]
Walker competed in the Paralympics for the first time during the 2000 games, in Sydney. In all he took home three medals from these games, a bronze in the 100 m breaststroke SB7, silver in the 50 m freestyle S7 and gold in the 4×100 m freestyle 34 pts. [6] As part of the gold medal winning relay team, which also included Jody Cundy, Giles Long and David Roberts, he set a new world record time of 4:06.85. [1]
In the 2004 Summer Paralympics, in Athens, Walker won a further two individual medals, silvers in both the 50 and 100 m S7 freestyle events. He was again part of the gold medal winning 4×100 m freestyle 34 pts relay team, which also included Roberts, Graham Edmunds and Robert Welbourn, that set a new world record of 3:59.62. [1] [7] [8]
Beijing 2008 was Walker's third appearance at a Paralympics, and his most successful to date with five medals won. [9] He medalled in both the 50 and 100 m S7 freestyle events, as he had done in Athens, and picked up medals in butterfly and medley events for the first time, winning silver in the 50 m S7 butterfly, with a European record time of 32.24 seconds, [10] and bronze in the 200 m individual medley SM7. [11] Competing alongside David Roberts, Robert Welbourn and Graham Edmunds, Walker won a gold medal in the 4×100 m freestyle 34 pts for the third time in as many Games. [12] This meant that he has now won eleven Paralympic medals, with all of his silver and bronze medals being won individually and all three of his golds being in relay events. [6] [11]
Walker was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours for services to disabled sport. [13]
In the 2012 Paralympics, within the S7 category, Walker participated in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly, winning bronze in the former category.
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.
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.
David Evan Roberts CBE, is a Welsh swimmer. An eleven-time Paralympic gold medallist, he is one of Great Britain's most successful Paralympians ever.
Theresa Goh Rui SiBBM is a Singaporean swimmer and Paralympic medalist, with a bronze at the SB4 100m breaststroke at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. She holds the world records for the SB4 50 metres and 200 metres breaststroke events.
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.
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Nyree Elise Kindred MBE is a Welsh swimmer who has competed in the Paralympic Games on four occasions winning ten medals.
Louise Stephanie Watkin is a British Paralympic swimmer. Watkin swims in the S9 category and represented Great Britain in the 2012 Summer Paralympics, in which she won two silver and two bronze medals. She won one silver and three bronze medals at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.
Graham Edmunds is a British swimmer who has competed in three Paralympic Games, winning two gold medals in world record times. He was a member of the Reading Swimming Club where he was also a part-time lifeguard and coached the Cygnets, Reading's club for swimmers with learning difficulties.
Matthew John Levy, is a retired Australian Paralympic swimmer. At five Paralympic Games from 2004 to 2020, he has won three gold, one silver and six bronze medals.
Blake Cochrane, is a retired Australian Paralympic swimmer. He won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, two gold medals at the 2012 London Paralympics, a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, and a silver and one bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Rick Pendleton, OAM is an Australian Paralympic swimmer from Sydney. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, his fourth Games.
Tanya Huebner is an Australian swimmer. She has represented Australia at the 2012 London and the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Matthew Whorwood is a British Paralympic swimmer. Whorwood, who swims mainly in S6 events has competed in two Paralympic Games winning three bronze medals in freestyle and breastroke events.
Stephanie Millward, is a British Paralympic swimmer.
Natalie Jones is a British Paralympic swimmer. She competes in S6 classification events and has represented Great Britain at four Paralympics winning five medals, including two golds at Athens in 2004.
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.
Denis Tarasov is a Paralympic swimmer from Russia competing mainly in category S8 events. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London he won five medals, including gold in the 50 metre freestyle S8 event. He has represented Russia at two IPC World Championships with a total of 12 medals. At the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow he set four world records, two as part of Russian relay teams and two individual records, in the 50m and 100m freestyle S8 events.
Thomas Young is a British Paralympic swimmer. He represented Britain at the 2012 London Paralympics and has won medals at both the long course and short course World Championships.
