Historical past of para swimming at Commonwealth Games

Team England has proudly risen to the highest of para swimming on the Commonwealth Games since its debut at Delhi 2010. 

As England’s greatest para swimmers put together for Glasgow 2026, right here’s the historical past of Team England in para swimming that has seen the St George’s flag hoisted excessive. 

A medal-winning debut for Team England

Team England’s para swimming staff made a splash at Delhi 2010, returning with 5 medals from their debut competitors on the Games.

Six years earlier than claiming Paralympic gold at Rio 2016, Stephanie Millward claimed England’s first ever para swimming medal with bronze within the girls’s 50m freestyle S9. 

Millward continued to set the usual with two silver medals within the 100m freestyle and butterfly S9, solely behind 15-time Paralympic gold medallist Natalie du Toit.

Robert Welbourn’s bronze within the 100m freestyle S10, in addition to Simon Miller’s silver within the 50m freestyle S9, marked a brilliant begin to Team England’s para swimming story. 

Oliver Hynd makes Glasgow golden

The first of many victors for Team England, Oliver Hynd secured England’s first-ever para swimming gold medal at Glasgow 2014 within the 200m particular person medley SM8.

It got here two years after he received Paralympic Games gold on dwelling soil in the exact same occasion at London 2012.

Elsewhere north of the border, Stephanie Slater stepped onto the rostrum with silver within the 100m freestyle S8, overwhelmed solely by Australian Maddison Elliott’s world report.

Thomas Hamer’s silver within the 200m freestyle S14 rounded off a marketing campaign that proved Team England’s pedigree on the high of the game.

Gold Coast by title and nature

Inspired by Hynd’s groundbreaking win in Glasgow, three gold medals returned in England’s palms from Gold Coast 2018 in Australia. 

Hamer levelled up his 200m freestyle S14 silver from Glasgow, ending in a blistering world report time of 1:55.88 to say gold.

Alice Tai additionally stormed to the highest step within the 100m backstroke S9, beating Australia’s most embellished Paralympian Ellie Cole to gold.

Tai additionally picked up silver within the girls’s 100m freestyle S9, joined by Emily Beecroft within the high 4, simply outdoors the medals.

Lewis White collected silver within the males’s 100m freestyle S9 as teenager Ellie Robinson soared to victory in her favoured 50m butterfly S7 occasion.  

Victorious dwelling marketing campaign shines

At Birmingham 2022, Team England didn’t simply have a number of athletes on the rostrum – that they had a number of athletes on the identical podium. 

Maisie-Summers Newton and Grace Harvey achieved an distinctive feat within the girls’s 100m Breaststroke SB6, securing a 1-2 within the last to take each high steps of the podium. 

Jessica Jane-Applegate and Louise Fiddles additionally clinched second and third collectively within the 200m freestyle S14, with teammate Poppy Maskill simply behind for fourth.

The story of the Games went the way in which of skilled head Tai, who retained her 100m backstroke S8 gold medal. It marked an unbelievable comeback after having had her leg amputated and classification modified in January that yr.

Hannah Russell swam to silver within the girls’s 50m freestyle S13, whereas James Hollis got here out of retirement to attain his Commonwealth Games goals of standing on the rostrum, as he received bronze within the males’s 100m butterfly S10.

Their most profitable marketing campaign but, with seven medals and three golds, Team England had been united greater than ever on dwelling soil.