| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sascha Kindred | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 13 December 1977 Münster, Germany |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Leominster Kingfisher[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sascha Kindred OBE (born 13 December 1977 in Münster, Germany[2]) is a British swimmer who competed in the Paralympic Games on four occasions, winning eleven medals.
Contents |
Born in Germany, Kindred moved to Britain at the age of 3. He began swimming for a club at the age of 11. He attended Mossley Hollins High School and Kaskenmoor secondary school for a short period of time before going into training at local swimming clubs such as Oldham.[3]
Kindred has cerebral palsy, which affects the right side of his body.[4] He competes in the S6 (butterfly), SM6 (medley) and SB7 (breaststroke) classifications.[5][6]
Kindred first competed at the Paralympic Games in Atlanta 1996 and won a silver medal in the 100 m breaststroke SB7.[7]
At the 2000 games in Sydney, Kindred won two gold medals, a silver, and a bronze. He described the games as his biggest sporting achievement so far.[3]
In the 2004 Athens Paralympics, Kindred won two gold medals, successfully defending the 100 m breaststroke SB7 and 200 m individual medley SM6 titles he had won in Sydney. He also won a bronze medal in the 4×50 m freestyle 20 pts.[7]
Kindred won his fifth Paralympic gold in the 200 m individual medley SM6 at the 2008 Games in Beijing, where he set a new world record time of 2:49.19 and earned the title for the third consecutive year.[8] He then won a second gold of the games, six titles overall, and set another world record of 1:22.18 in the 100 m breaststroke SB7.[9] The third medal he won was a bronze in the 50 m butterfly S6.[10]
In addition to his success in the Paralympics, Kindred has won 12 medals (5 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze) at IPC World Championships, 15 medals (8 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze) at European Championships, and a gold medal at the 2006 Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.[5]
Kindred's girlfriend is fellow British Paralympic gold medal winning swimmer Nyree Lewis. Together, the pair are known as the "golden couple" of British disability swimming.[11][12]
He includes amongst his sporting heroes Eric Cantona, Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis,[3] and is a supporter of Manchester United.[4]
Kindred was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.[13]