 Cross takes the official Athletes Oath at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Opening Ceremony | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Tracey Nicole Cross | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 4 December 1972 Bunbury, Western Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Tracey Nicole Cross, OAM [1] (born 4 December 1972) [2] is an Australian visually impaired swimmer. She won ten medals at three Paralympics, from 1992 to 2000.
Cross was born in the Western Australian city of Bunbury on 4 December 1972. [2] She has been blind since birth; in a 2000 interview, she said that the light perception that she had in one eye was "almost useless". [3] She was left out of sporting activities at school, and started swimming at the age of 15. [3] She took the sport casually at first, but took it more seriously when she found that she had a natural aptitude for swimming. [3]
In 1994, she obtained a law degree from Murdoch University. After working in that field for some years, she became a massage therapist; she works in a natural health clinic in West Perth. Cross developed her passion for massage after she sustained a neck and shoulder injury while training for the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. [3] [4]
Cross won her first international gold medal in the women's 400 m Freestyle B1 at the 1990 World Championships and Games for the Disabled in Assen, Netherlands. [5] [6]
At the 1992 Barcelona Games, she won two gold medals in the Women's 100 m Freestyle B1 and Women's 400 m Freestyle B1 events, and two silver medals in the Women's 100 m Backstroke B1 and Women's 200 m Medley B1 events; [7] she also came fourth in both the Women's 100 m Butterfly B1 [8] and Women's 50 m Freestyle B1 events. [9]
She won two gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Games in the Women's 100 m Butterfly B1 and the Women's 200 m Medley B1 events, and a silver medal in the Women's 50 m Freestyle B1 event; [7] she also came fifth in the Women's 100 m Backstroke B1 event [10] and came seventh in the heats of the Women's 400 m Freestyle B2 event. [11]
She spoke the Paralympic oath at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. [12] In the competition, she received two silver medals in the Women's 100 m Freestyle S11 and the Women's 400 m Freestyle S11 events, and a bronze medal in the Women's 50 m Freestyle S11 event; [7] she also came fifth in the Women's 200 m Medley SM11 event [13] and eighth in the Women's 100 m Backstroke S11 event. [14]
In 1993, Cross received a Medal of the Order of Australia for her 1992 Paralympic gold medals. [1] In that year, she also received the Western Australian Citizen of the Year Award in the Youth category. [15] On 14 November 2000, she received an Australian Sports Medal "For Service to Sport as a gold Medallist at the Paralympic Games". [16] She received a Centenary Medal on 1 January 2001 "For service to the community through Paralympic swimming". [17] In 2009, she was inducted into the Swimming Western Australia Hall of Fame. [18]
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