Katherine Downie
 2012 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Downie | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Katherine Rose Downie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Kat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |
 Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
12 January 1996 Aberdeen, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Backstroke, freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classifications | S10, SB9, SM10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club |
UWA Uniswim Swim Club Westside Christ Church | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coach |
Mel Tantrum and Julie Hardt Paul Bruce | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Katherine Rose Downie OAM (born 12 January 1996) is an Australian Paralympian. Kat first represented Australia in 2011. Kat represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in swimming and was a member of both the Gold medal Women's 34 point 4 x 100 free and 4 × 100 medley relay teams. Kat placed fourth in both her pet events the 100 backstroke and 200IM.
Katherine lives with mild right hemiplegic spastic cerebral palsy and is an Australian S10 classified swimmer.
Personal
Downie was born on 12 January 1996 in Aberdeen, Scotland.[1][2][3][4] She has right hemiplegia spastic cerebral palsy",[1] a condition she has had since birth.[1] As of 2012, Katherine is an Architecture student at Curtin University.[1]
Swimming
Downie is an S10 classified swimmer.[1][1][5] She is a member of the Westside Christ Church Swim Club,[6] and is coached by Paul Bruce.[1] She has set three world records,[2][6] all at the 2011 Australian National Open Short Course Championships.[2] The records were for the 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke events.[2][3][7][8][9]
Downie learned to swim as a baby/toddler in Aberdeen Scotland. She became a competitive swimmer in 2007 when she was ten years old.[1][2][6] She first represented Australia in an international competition in 2011.[1] She competed at the 2011 Arafura Games.[1] She participated in the 2012 Australian Swimming Championships/London Olympic Trials in Australia as a sixteen-year-old. She finished second in the 200m individual medley event with a time of 2.34.21. She had a personal best time of 1.02.88 in the 100m freestyle, personal best time of 29.03 in the 50m freestyle, and personal best time of 32.04 in the 50m butterfly.[6][9] In the women’s 50m backstroke multi class event, she finished second with a time of 33.62.[10] She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[5][9][11] She attended a Paralympic farewell ceremony at Perth's State Basketball Centre in late July.[12] She competed in nine events and won two gold medals as a member of the Women's 4 × 100 m Freestyle and 4 × 100 m Medley Relay (34 points) teams.[13]
Competing at the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal, Canada, she won a silver medal in the Women's 200 m Individual Medley SM10 and bronze medal in the Women's 100 m Backstroke S10.[14][15]
She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2014 Australia Day Honours "for service to sport as a Gold Medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games."[4] In 2013 and 2014, she was awarded Wheelchair Sports WA Junior Sports Star of the Year.[16][17]
References
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Wikinews has related news: 2012 Australian Paralympic swim team announced |
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Katherine Downie". Australia: Australian Paralympic Committee. 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Katherine breaks three world records". Perth, Western Australia: Hills News. 2011-08-16. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
- 1 2 "World records fall to Downie". Perth, Western Australia: inMyCommunity. 2011-08-16. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
- 1 2 "Australia Day honours list 2014: in full". Daily Telegraph. 26 January 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
- 1 2 "Paralympic swim team revealed". Australian Paralympic Committee. 2012-07-10. Retrieved 2012-07-10.
- 1 2 3 4 "Katherine ready for London". Perth, Western Australia: inMyCommunity. 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
- ↑ "Katherine ready for London". Guardian Express (Perth, Australia). 17 April 2012. p. 58. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
- ↑ Brown, Tyler (10 April 2012). "Kaths quest". Wanneroo Times (Perth, Australia). p. 63. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
- 1 2 3 "Downie books a ticket to London". Comment News (Perth, Australia). 10 April 2012. p. 60. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
- ↑ "Swimming Victoria". Swimming Victoria. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
- ↑ "Cowdrey leads Paralympic swim team — ABC Grandstand Sport — ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Abc.net.au. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
- ↑ Foreman, Glen (24 July 2012). "Aussie paralympians throw down gauntlet to the Poms". Herald Sun. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
- ↑ "Katherine Downie". International Paralympic Committee website. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
- ↑ "Men's relay team back it up in Montreal". Swimming Australia News. 16 August 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
- ↑ "Twenty-seven medals for the Australian swim team in Montreal". Swimming Australia News. 19 August 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- ↑ "WSWA 18th Annual Sports Star Awards". Wheelchair Sports WA. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ↑ "19th Annual Sports Star of the Year Awards". Wheelchair Sports WA Facebook. Retrieved 25 November 2014.