Tara Flood (born 1966) is a retired British Paralympic swimmer who competed in three Paralympic Games and winning seven medals. She was born without her forearms. She is now a disability rights activist. [1] [2]
Tara Flood (born 1966) is a retired British Paralympic swimmer who competed in three Paralympic Games and winning seven medals. She was born without her forearms. She is now a disability rights activist. [1] [2]
Flood was born in Preston, Lancashire and was discriminated by her grandmother who often insulted her mother by saying "look what Sally's given birth to" which emotionally affected both Tara and her mother. Her mother had a nervous breakdown when Tara was two days old and was heavily sedated. [3] [4]
She attended a residential special school at sixteen months to her sixteenth birthday in East Sussex. [5]
Flood's first experiences of being in the pool was when she was two or three years old, she was thrown into the pool and described "those of us that literally bobbed to the surface were just sort of like, oh great, let's really sort of get on, and those that didn't were just sort of pulled out". [6]
Flood began swimming aged five at her residential school where she took swimming lessons with other children who had similar disabilities to her. She began swimming competitively aged twelve then attended the 1984 Summer Paralympics in New York City aged thirteen. [7]
Flood works in London at as a disability activist and worked in various disability rights charities in the city. She was also involved with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and is campaigning to get the Convention fully implemented. [8] [9]
Susan Lilian Primrose Cunliffe-Lister, Countess of Swinton, Baroness Masham of Ilton, was a British crossbench member of the House of Lords, disability campaigner and Paralympic athlete. She was the founder and life-long president of the Spinal Injuries Association. She was Vice President of the Snowdon Trust, founded by the Earl of Snowdon, which provides grants and scholarships for students with disabilities. Her 53 years' membership of the House of Lords was the longest of any female peer.
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.
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