 2016 Australian Paralympic team portrait of Monique Murphy | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality |  Australia | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 9 April 1994 Wellington, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||
| Disability | Amputee | ||||||||||||||
| Disability class | S10 | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Vicentre | ||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Alex Hirschauer | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Monique Murphy (born 9 April 1994) [1] is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics where she won a silver medal. [2] [3]
Murphy was born on 9 April 1994 in Wellington, New Zealand. [4] [5] In 2014, Murphy fell 20m from a fifth story balcony [6] which left her in a coma. [7] Murphy recalls her injuries when she woke, "I woke up in hospital with a broken jaw in two places, a cut to my neck close to the main artery and windpipe, a broken left collarbone, a tear in my triceps tendon, three broken ribs and a tibial plateau fracture." [6] Murphy's injuries were too severe for recovery, which led to the amputation of her right leg below the knee. [6] In 2016, she is studying a Bachelor of Social Work with honours at RMIT. She also volunteers with St Vincent de Paul with their youth program, and is an ambassador with Share the Dignity. [5] Murphy now resides in Brisbane training alongside paralympians Brendan Hall and Lakeisha Patterson under coach Harley Connolly.
Murphy started swimming at a young age with the Tuggeranong Vikings Swim Club; swimming as an abled-bodied swimmer. [8] Since the accident in 2014, Murphy was determined to get back in the pool and started training at 2014 at Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club in Melbourne. She now swims under the classification of S10 [1] and was picked to travel with 30 other athletes [9] to Glasgow for the IPC World Championships. [10] Here, she placed 6th and 7th in the Women's 400m Freestyle (S10) and Women's 100m Butterfly (S10) respectively. [1]
At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, she competed in four events. Murphy qualified for the final in the Women's 400m S10 and won a silver medal. [3] She also competed in the following events but didn't progress to the finals: Women's 50m Freestyle S10, Women's 100m Freestyle S10 and Women's 100m Backstroke S10. [3]
Murphy has revolutionized how she trains with a "prosthetic fin" which she calls her, "mermaid leg." This new leg helps her engage the muscles of her right leg when swimming. [6] Her motto is "If your dreams don't scare you they aren't big enough". [11] She also reflects on her disability and competing at Rio stating "As a kid growing up I always dreamed of going to the Olympics and this has come around in a different way than I had ever expected so, it's a second chance to go after my dream." [12]
In 2016, she is a Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder and trains at Melbourne Vicentre. [11] At the end of 2016, she relocated to the Gold Coast training with Southport Olympic with coach Glenn Baker and scholarship holder with the QAS. With the cancellation of the 2017 World Championships due to the earthquake in Mexico City, she finished No.1 on the world rankings for S10 400 freestyle for 2017. At the end of 2017, Monique moved to Brisbane to train with coach Harley Connolly at Lawnton Swim Club. She moved to Burpengary Regional Aquatic Center in 2019 to continue training with Harley Connolly.
In October 2018, she was awarded Swimming Australia's Optus Community Award for her role in inspiring the next generation of swimmers through participation in swimming clinics, Australia Swims, Optus Junior Dolphins and Olympics Unleashed. [13]
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.
Brenden Hall, is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He competed at the, 2008 Beijing Paralympics, 2012 London Paralympics, 2016 Rio Paralympics, 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and the 2024 Paris Paralympics. At the end of the Paris Paralympics, he had won three gold, one silver and three bronze medals.
Rick Pendleton, OAM is an Australian Paralympic swimmer from Sydney. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, his fourth Games.
Prue Watt, is a Paralympic swimming gold medalist from Australia. She has represented Australia at the four Paralympics from 2004 to 2016.
Michael Anderson, is an Australian Paralympic swimmer who has won gold, silver and bronze medals at the three Paralympics from 2008 to 2016.
Tanya Huebner is an Australian swimmer. She has represented Australia at the 2012 London and the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Rowan Crothers is an Australian freestyle swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and 2024 Paris Paralympics. He won two gold and one silver medals at the Tokyo Paralympics and two silver and one bronze medals at 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.
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. At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, she won the silver medal in the Women's 400 m Freestyle S9.
Ashleigh Kate McConnell, is a limb deficient Paralympic swimmer of Australia. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, where she won gold medals in freestyle relay events.
Guy Harrison-Murray is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Tully Alicia Jacqueline Kearney is a British Paralympic swimmer. Kearney currently competes in the S5/SB4/SM5 classification for swimmers with physical disabilities. She won gold and silver at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and followed this up at the Paris 2024 Games with two further gold medals, including retaining her 100 m freestyle S5 title. Since first competing at the World Para Swimming Championships in 2013 she has won thirteen World Championship medals, ten of which are gold. Kearney is a multiple British, European and World record holder.
Alice Tai, is a British paralympic swimmer. Tai competes in the SB8, SM8 and S8. She has represented Great Britain at European and World Championships and at the Commonwealth and Paralympic Games, gold medals at all levels.
Paige Leonhardt is an Australian swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, where she won a silver medal and the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
The Faroe Islands sent a delegation to compete at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7–18 September 2016. They sent one participant, Krista Mørkøre, who participated in three events in swimming. Her top finish was 10th in women's 400 m freestyle S10, and she did not qualify for the finals of any of her three events.
Lisa Kruger is a Dutch swimmer who is a member of the Dutch Paralympic team.
