Pauline English
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Pauline Jean English | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |
 Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Pauline Jean English, OAM,[1] is an Australian paraplegic swimmer, who won five medals at two Paralympics.
English has been paralysed from the waist down since the age of three due to transverse myelitis.[2] In December 1971, shortly after she had finished school at the age of 14, her father encouraged her to take up competitive swimming. He enrolled her at Don Talbot's swimming pool in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. At that pool, one of Talbot's assistants, Trevor Ellis, taught her how to balance herself and gain power by making her swim against a rubber hose that was tied to both her ankles and the edge of the pool. [2] Four weeks after her first lesson, she broke two Australian records at the New South Wales Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Games and four weeks after that, she won four gold medals and broke four Australian records at the Australian Paraplegic Championships. From then on, she was coached by former Olympic swimmer Janice Murphy.[2]
At the 1972 Heidelberg Games, she won three bronze medals in the Women's 3x25 m Medley 4, Women's 50 m Freestyle 4, and Women's 3x50 m Medley Relay 2–4 events.[2][3][4] She won two gold medals in freestyle and individual medley and two silver medals in the backstroke and the relay at the 1974 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Dunedin, New Zealand.[2] At the 1974 International Stoke Mandeville Games in London she won a bronze medal.[2] At the 1976 Toronto Paralympics, she won a gold medal in the Women's 25 m Butterfly 4 event and a bronze medal in the Women's 3x50 m Individual Medley 4 event.[3] Her butterfly event was originally scheduled for the evening, so English decided to watch the earlier swimming events at the venue. It was only after she had eaten lunch at the adjoining cafeteria at 1:00PM that she discovered that her butterfly event had been rescheduled to 1:45 that afternoon. She felt very ill after the race and said in an interview: "I think I must be the only Olympic gold medallist to win on a medal of hamburger, onion rings, honey buns, and chocolate shake".[2]
In April 1979, she swam across Sydney Harbour from Luna Park to the Opera House to raise funds for an indoor stadium for disabled athletes in Sydney. She was joined by long-distance swimmer Des Renford.[5]
In 1984, she received a Medal of the Order of Australia, "in recognition of service to sport, particularly in relation to people with disabilities". [1]
References
- 1 2 "English, Pauline Jean, OAM". It's an Honour. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Humphreys, Rod (14 November 1976). "A Hamburger and Onions with Gold". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 38. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
- 1 2 "Athlete Search Results". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- ↑ "Australian bronze medallists in swimming at the 1972 Summer Paralympics". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
- ↑ "Paralysed woman swims harbour". Canberra Times. 8 April 1979. Retrieved 7 January 2016.