| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hillcrest, San Diego, California |
| Sport | |
| Country |  United States |
| Sport | Paralympic swimming |
| Disability | Survivor of meningococcal disease |
| Disability class | S4 |
| Coached by | Alan Voisard |
Melanie Benn is a former American Paralympic swimmer who is a quadruple amputee after contracting meningococcemia. She now works as a social worker and raises her awareness of the contraction of blood disease and importance of immunization relating to her disability. [1]
On Christmas Eve 1995 while studying psychology at Humboldt State University, Benn was aged 18 and had the first signs of the disease when she had difficulty walking along with burning pain in her legs and numbness on the right side of her body. She went to the emergency room to see a doctor after her mother concerned with the symptoms that Benn was showing, within one hour of arriving at the hospital she went into shock and was admitted into the intensive care unit where she was under supervision with doctors who took various tests to determine the diagnosis. After she received the diagnosis of meningococcemia, a rare and fatal bacterial blood infection, she was forced to have her arms amputated below the elbows and legs above the knee to save her life after contracting gangrene from kidney failure and poor blood circulation. [2]
Benn started swimming after she received a kidney transplant from her father and began rehabilitation. She began long distance swimming by competing in a 1.2 mile open water swimming event at La Jolla, California where she was noticed by a triathlon coach who trained with disabled swimmers. [3]
Benn's teammate Joe McCarthy, who too is a disabled due to paralysis, encouraged her to compete in the Paralympics and participate in the Paralympic trials in Indianapolis in June 2000. She qualified to compete in the 2000 Paralympic Games where she won a silver medal then won a silver and two bronze medals at 2004 Summer Paralympics. [4] [5]
Natalie du Toit OIG MBE is a South African swimmer. She is best known for the gold medals she won at the 2004 Paralympic Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. She was one of two Paralympians to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; the other being table tennis player Natalia Partyka. Du Toit became the third amputee ever to qualify for the Olympics, where she placed 16th in the 10km swim.
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.
Priya Naree Cooper, is an Australian world champion disabled swimmer, winning nine Paralympic gold medals as well as world records and world championships. She competed in the Australian swimming team at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Summer Paralympics with an S8 classification. She was twice the co-captain of the Australian Paralympic team, including at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, and carried the Australian flag at the closing ceremonies for the 1992 and 1996 Summer Paralympics. Cooper has cerebral palsy and spends much of her time in a wheelchair. She attended university, working on a course in health management. After she ended her competitive Paralympic career, she became a commentator, and covered the swimming events at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Siobhan Bethany Paton, OAM is an Australian Paralympic swimmer who was born in Sydney. Paton has had an intellectual disability from birth which was a consequence a lack of oxygen. Paton decided to become a swimmer after finding out she has a connective tissue disorder and that swimming would assist in the strengthening of her joints. Siobhan initially began competing with non-disabled athletes and only in 1997 did she compete in a competition for athletes with disabilities, where she won seven gold medals and one silver medal. As of 2004, she holds thirteen world records in her disability class of S14.
Inbal Pezaro is an Israeli Paralympic swimmer.
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. Following the 2012 London Paralympics, where she won four gold and two bronze medals, Cole underwent two shoulder reconstructions and made a successful return to swimming at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships, winning five medals, including three golds. She subsequently represented Australia at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. In claiming her seventeenth Paralympic medal in Tokyo, Cole became Australia's most decorated female Paralympian with six gold, five silver and six bronze medals from four Paralympic Games.
Australia competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. It was Australia's 12th year of participation at the Paralympics. The team included 151 athletes. Australian competitors won 101 medals to finish fifth in the gold medal table and second on the total medal table. Australia competed in 12 sports and won medals in 8 sports. The Chef de Mission was Paul Bird. The Australian team was smaller than the Sydney Games due to a strict selection policy related to the athletes' potential to win a medal and the International Paralympic Committee's decision to remove events for athletes with an intellectual disability from the Games due to issues of cheating at the Sydney Games. This was due to a cheating scandal with the Spanish intellectually disabled basketball team in the 2000 Summer Paralympics where it was later discovered that only two players actually had intellectual disabilities. The IPC decision resulted in leading Australian athletes such as Siobhan Paton and Lisa Llorens not being able to defend their Paralympic titles. The 2000 summer paralympic games hosted in Sydney Australia proved to be a milestone for the Australian team as they finished first on the medal tally for the first time in history. In comparing Australia's 2000 Paralympic performance and their 2004 performance, it is suggested that having a home advantage might affect performance.
Keren Or Leibovitch is an Israeli Paralympic swimmer.
Elizabeth Mary Edmondson PLY is an Australian Paralympic competitor and current Australian Masters competitor in swimming. She became a paraplegic after contracting polio as a small child. She won several medals in the 1964 and 1968 Summer Paralympics. She subsequently retired from swimming, only taking up the sport again in 2006 to compete in the 2008 FINA World Masters Championships in Perth.
Lorraine McCoulough-Fry was an Australian Paralympic swimmer, athlete and table tennis player.
Melanie Easter is a British paralympic swimmer, runner and more recently a cyclist. She represented the United Kingdom as a swimmer at the 1996 and 2000 Paralympic games. She won a gold and silver for events at the 1996 games in Atlanta, and gold, silver and bronze medals for at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000. Additionally an accomplished runner, Easter took up cycling competitively in 2007, and the following year competed in the World Triathlon Championships in Vancouver where she attained a gold.
Victoria Arlen is a current television personality for ESPN, as well as an actress, speaker, model, and former American paralympian swimmer.
Lakeisha Dawn Patterson, is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She won medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, she won Australia's first gold medal of the Games in a world record time swim in the Women's 400m freestyle S8. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, she won the gold medal in the Women's 400 m Freestyle S9.
Madhavi Latha is a para-athletics sportsperson who champions the cause of sports for persons with disabilities. She won three gold medals at the National Paralympic Swimming Championships and is also the founder of the Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India (WBI), India's national wheelchair basketball body. In 2011, she founded the Paralympic Swimming Association of Tamil Nadu, a non-governmental organization (NGO) which focuses primarily on inclusion in sports and the promotion of sports for people with disabilities.
Fanni Illés is a Hungarian Paralympic swimmer. She was born without legs and has webbed hands. She has been a part of the Hungarian national swimming team since 2006, aged 14, and has participated at three Summer Paralympic Games. She competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, winning a gold medal.
Kay Espenhayn was a former German Paralympic swimmer. She was born in a Christian family and was the first German to become a UNICEF ambassador in disabled sports.
Krystal Leesa Shaw is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer who competes in international level events.
Zara Mullooly is a British Paralympic swimmer who competes in International level freestyle events. She is British Record holder in 50m, 100m, 200m, and 400m freestyle for the S10 classification. Zara has congenital right side hemiplegia, a form of cerebral palsy.
Britta Siegers is a retired German wheelchair tennis player and Paralympic swimmer who competed in international level events. She was the first German disabled athlete to compete in two different sports at the Paralympics: she was a swimmer from 1984 to 1992 and returned twelve years later as a wheelchair tennis player at the 2004 Summer Paralympics.
