Sascha Kindred

Sascha Kindred OBE
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]

Sascha Kindred OBE (born 13 December 1977 in Münster, Germany[2]) is a British swimmer who has competed in five Summer Paralympic Games, winning twelve medals.

Early life

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]

Paralympic career

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]

Personal life

Kindred's wife is fellow British Paralympic gold medal winning swimmer Nyree Lewis. Together the pair, who live in Herefordshire,[11] are known as the "golden couple" of British disability swimming.[12][13]

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.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "British Swimming and the asa: Sascha Kindred". British Swimming. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  2. ↑ "Athlete Biography". The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Q&A: Sascha Kindred". Disability Now magazine. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Interview with Sascha Kindred". Total Swimming. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Athlete Biography". University of Bath website. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  6. ↑ "A-Z of Paralympic classification". BBCSport. 28 August 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 sascha kindred's profile on paralympic.org
  8. ↑ "Kindred claims fifth gold in pool". BBC Sport. 7 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  9. ↑ "Kindred clinches second pool gold". BBC Sport. 9 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  10. ↑ "Official results of men's 50m butterfly - S6" (PDF). The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  11. ↑ Prime, Richard. "Herefordshire Paralympian Sascha Kindred's Royal date". Hereford Times. Retrieved 2012-07-26.
  12. ↑ "Paralympic challengers: Sascha Kindred and Nyree Lewis". BBC Sport. 2 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  13. ↑ "Kindred joining Lewis in glory bid". Worcester News. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  14. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 58929. p. 10. 31 December 2008.

External links