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Ben Popham

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Australian Paralympic swimmer

Ben PophamOAM
Ben Popham in 2019
Personal information
NationalityAustralian
Born (2000-09-04) 4 September 2000 (age 24)
Sport
CountryAustralia
SportParalympic swimming
Disability classS9 SB8, SM9
ClubArena Swim Club
Coached bySimon Redmond
Medal record
Representing  Australia
Men's Swimming
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2020 Tokyo 100m freestyle S8
Gold medal – first place 2020 Tokyo 4×100 m freestyle 34 pts
Silver medal – second place 2020 Tokyo 4×100 m medley 34 pts
World Para Swimming Championships
Silver medal – second place 2019 London 100m freestyle S8
Bronze medal – third place 2019 London 50m freestyle S8
Bronze medal – third place 2019 London 4x100m freestyle 34 points

Ben Popham OAM (born 4 September 2000) is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, winning a silver and two bronze medals, and the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, where he won two gold medals and a silver.

Personal

Popham was born on 4 September 2000. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as an infant. In 2011 he was chosen to be one of the Channel Seven Perth Telethon's "Little Telethon Stars". In 2019, he commenced a Bachelor of Commerce at Curtin University.

Swimming career

Popham commenced swimming as a seven year old as part of his physical therapy program for cerebral palsy. Popham made his international debut when he represented Australia at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships in Cairns and won the Men's 100m Freestyle S8 and was a member of the Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay (34 points) team.

At the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London, Popham won a silver medal in the Men's 100m Freestyle S8 and bronze medals in the Men's 50m Freestyle S8 and Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle 34 points.

At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Popham won a gold medal in the Men's 100m freestyle S8 with a time of 57.37 Together with Rowan Crothers, Matt Levy and William Martin, he won gold and broke the current World Record for the Men's 4×100 m freestyle 34 pts by almost 2 seconds. In the Men's 4x100m Medley 34 pts, he swam together with Timothy Disken, Timothy Hodge, and William Martin. His team won the silver medal in a time of 4:07.70, just over a second behind the winners, RPC, who set a new world record. He also competed in the 400 m freestyle S8 where he qualified for the final. He came eighth in the final with a time of 4:49.32.

He has since been reclassified to an S9 swimmer, a class for athletes with more physical ability compared to the S8 classification.

Recognition

  • 2018 – 'AIS Discovery of the Year' at Swimming Australia Awards.
  • 2019 – Curtin University Sportsman of the Year
  • 2019 – Western Australian Swimming Multi-Class Swimmer of the Year
  • 2021 –Western Australian Swimming Awards - Sir Frank Beaurepaire Memorial Trophy, Elizabeth Edmondson Medallist and Hancock Prospecting Patron's Trophy for Male Swimming
  • 2021 - Swimming Australia Awards Swimmers' Swimmer with Grant Patterson
  • 2022 – Medal of the Order of Australia for service to sport as a gold medallist at the Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020

References

  1. ^ Rifici, Victoria (17 January 2019). "Ben Popham (18) finalist for WA Sports Star award after 2018 international swimming feat". Western Suburbs Weekly. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  2. Smith, Ben (25 August 2021). "Tokyo Paralympics: Former Telethon Kid, WA's Ben Popham, qualifies fastest for 100m freestyle S8 final". PerthNow. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  3. "Ben Popham". Swimming Australia website. Archived from the original on 24 January 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  4. "Ben Popham results". 2019 World Para Swimming Championships results. 9 September 2019. Archived from the original on 26 August 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  5. "Men's Relay Team Smash World Record to Capture Gold | Swimming Australia". www.swimming.org.au. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  6. "Paralympics Australia Names Powerful Para-Swimming Team For Tokyo". Paralympics Australia. 16 June 2021. Archived from the original on 16 June 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  7. "Ben Popham Results". Tokyo Paralympics Official Results. Archived from the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  8. "Ben Popham and Zoe Arancini win Curtin University Sports Awards". Western Australian Institute of Sport. Archived from the original on 18 March 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  9. "Holly Barratt Named Western Australia's Swimmer of the year". SwimSwam. 24 May 2019. Archived from the original on 7 June 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  10. "Historic Tokyo success celebrated in style". Swimming Australia. 12 February 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  11. "Australia Day 2022 Honours List" (PDF). Governor-General of Australia. Retrieved 26 January 2022.

External links

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