Matthew Cowdrey

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Medal record
Men's EAD Swimming
Paralympic Games
Gold	2004 Athens	100m Freestyle-S9
Gold	2004 Athens	200m Individual Medley-SM9
Silver	2004 Athens	100m Butterfly-S9
Silver	2004 Athens	4x100m Freestyle Relay
Bronze	2004 Athens	50m Freestyle-S9
Bronze	2004 Athens	400m Freestyle-S9
Commonwealth Games
Gold	2006 Melbourne	50m Freestyle-S9
Gold	2006 Melbourne	100m Freestyle-S9

Matthew John Cowdrey (born 22 December 1988) is an Australian swimmer and holder of numerous world records. He lives in South Australia and swims for the Norwood Swimming Club. He has a congenital amputation of his left arm; it stops at the elbow. Cowdrey competed at the 2004 Paralympic Games and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Cowdrey competes in the International Paralympic Committee's S9 (freestyle, backstroke and butterfly) SB9 (breaststroke) and SM9 (individual medley) classifications; which comprise swimmers with a severe leg weakness, swimmers with slight coordination problems and swimmers with one limb loss.

[edit] 2006 Commonwealth Games

Two EAD (Elite Athletes with Disabilities) swimming events at the Games counted with the able bodied events towards the medal tally: the 50 metre freestyle and 100 metre freestyle. Since the races had swimmers with different classifications in them, the medals were determined by comparing each swimmer to the world record in their classification. Cowdrey won both events, both in world record time for the S9 classification: 26.06s for the 50 m freestyle and 56.73s for the 100 m freestyle. Cowdrey's medals accounted for two of the three gold medals won by the entire Australian men's swimming team.

[edit] External links

• Swimming Australia profile for Matthew Cowdrey
• Layman's Guide to Classifications by IPC Swimming.
• Aquatic Swimming Results at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
• Medalists by event, 2004 Paralympic Games
• Matthew Cowdrey, Aquatic Management Group
• Talent Times, newsletter, Australian Paralympic Committee, Issue 1 July 2005.