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| Full name | Paul Bird | |||||||||||
| Nationality |  Australia | |||||||||||
| Born | 18 July 1954 Murwillumbah, New South Wales | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Paul Bird, OAM is an Australian athlete, swimmer, Paralympic gold and silver medalist, and sports administrator.
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Paul Bird | |||||||||||
| Nationality | Australia | |||||||||||
| Born | 18 July 1954 Murwillumbah, New South Wales | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Paul Bird, OAM is an Australian athlete, swimmer, Paralympic gold and silver medalist, and sports administrator.
Paul Bird was born in Murwillumbah, New South Wales on 18 July 1954, one of five sons of Ken and Thelma Bird. He was educated at St John Fishers, Ignatius Park College and Home Hill State High School. He participated in a number of sports, playing rugby league for North Queensland Schoolboys, and was a state medalist in backstroke relay as a 17-year-old. [1] His leg was amputated as a result of a motor cycle accident when he was 18, but he continued sporting activities, including swimming. He was also an assistant scuba diving instructor for a Townsville club. [1]
He won a number of events in the pool and on the field as well, earning him a place in the Queensland state squad. In Sydney he won the Australian long jump and pentathlon events, and was runner up in discus, shot-put, javelin, butterfly, backstroke and freestyle championships. He was a member of the team for the 1980 Summer Paralympics in Arnhem, Netherlands, winning a gold medal in the pool in the 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay. He was the Australian Team Captain at the 1984 Summer Paralympics, at which he won a second gold medal in the 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay, and a silver medal in the 100m backstroke. [1] [2]
He was appointed to the Australian Paralympic Team staff as a Section Manager for the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul in 1988. He was Assistant Chef de Mission for Australian Paralympic team at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona, the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta and the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, and was Chef de Mission for the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. He was also the Chef de Mission for the Australian team at the 1999 FESPIC Games in Bangkok and the 2002 FESPIC Games in Pusan, and was Assistant Chef de Mission for the 2006 FESPIC Games in Kuala Lumpur. He was one of the torchbearers at the 2000 Summer Olympics torch relay. He was elected President of the Oceania Paralympic Committee in December 2005.
In November 2000 he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for "over 20 years outstanding service to the Paralympic movement and as Chef de Mission". [3] He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2002 "For service to sports administration, particularly through the Australian Paralympic Committee." [4] In 2010, he was awarded the Paralympic Medal, the APC's highest award, for his leadership roles with Australian Teams and his contribution to the development of the Australian Paralympic Committee over a period of 30 years. [1] [2] In December 2021, he was awarded the International Paralympic Committee's Paralympic Order. [5]
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.
Bradford Paul Cooper is an Australian former freestyle and backstroke swimmer of the 1970s, who won a gold medal in the 400 m freestyle at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In that race he originally finished second by the smallest margin ever to decide an Olympic swimming final, but was later awarded the gold medal after the victor, American Rick DeMont, an asthmatic, was disqualified after his post-race urinalysis tested positive for traces of the banned substance ephedrine contained in his prescription asthma medication, Marax.
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 six Paralympic Games, winning 30 medals. She has won over 50 world championship medals.
Australia was the host nation for the 2000 Summer Paralympics which was held in Sydney. Australia competed in the games between 18 and 29 October. The team consisted of 285 athletes in 18 sports with 148 officials. It was the country's largest ever Paralympic delegation to a Games. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games since its inception. Australia finished at the top of the medal tally with 63 gold, 39 silver and 47 bronze medals to total 149 medals for the games. This was the first time and the only time to date that Australia has finished on top of either an Olympic or Paralympic medal tally.
Australia sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. The country sent 167 athletes in 13 sports and 122 officials. It was the country's largest ever Paralympic delegation to an away Games. The team sent to Beijing was described as the emergence of the new generation of Australian athletes with 56 percent of the team attending their first Paralympic Games. The delegation's chef de mission was Darren Peters.
Australia competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Games in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012. The London Games were the biggest Games with 164 nations participating, 19 more than in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games and hosted the 2000 Sydney Games. As such, the 2000 Sydney Games, regarded as one of the more successful Games, became a point-of-reference and an inspiration in the development of the 2012 London 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.
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.
Andrew Bruce Pasterfield, is a Paralympic swimmer from Australia.
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.
Michael Anderson, is an Australian Paralympic swimmer who has won gold, silver and bronze medals at the three Paralympics from 2008 to 2016.
Jacqueline Rose "Jacqui" Freney is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. At the 2012 London Games, she broke Siobhan Paton's Australian record of six gold medals at a single Games by winning her seventh gold medal in the Women's 400 m Freestyle S7. She finished the Games with eight gold medals, more than any other participant in the Games.
Eric Boulter is an Australian swimmer, athlete, and wheelchair basketball player who won two medals at the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics.
Matthew Cameron is an Australian Paralympic athletics competitor. He competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, he won a bronze medal.
Katherine Rose Downie is an Australian Paralympian. Kat first represented Australia in 2011. Kat represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in swimming and was a member of both the Gold medal Women's 34 point 4 x 100 free and 4 × 100 medley relay teams. Kat placed fourth in both her pet events the 100 backstroke and 200IM.
Maddison Gae Elliott, is an Australian swimmer. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, she became the youngest Australian Paralympic medallist by winning bronze medals in the women's 400 m and 100 m freestyle S8 events. She then became the youngest Australian gold medallist when she was a member of the women's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay 34 points team. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, she won three gold and two silver medals.
Australia competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. Australia repeated its 2012 Summer Paralympics achievement in finishing fifth of the medal tally.
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.
Timothy Hodge is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He has represented Australia at the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Summer Paralympics, where he won two gold, three silver and one bronze medals.
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.
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