Maddison Elliott

Maddie, Maddi (Facebook profile, 22 Mar 2020; theherald.com.au, 13 Nov 2018)

Motorsport. (Facebook profile, 22 Mar 2020)

Coach Paul Sharman, and her family. (paralympic.org.au, 09 Dec 2016)

Australian Para swimmer Matt Cowdrey. (paralympic.org, 27 Dec 2013)

She was presented with the 2016 Female Paralympian of the Year award by the Australian Paralympic Committee [APC]. She was also named Female Athlete of the Year, Regional Athlete of the Year and Mizuno Junior Athlete of the Year at the 2016 New South Wales Institute of Sport [NSWIS] Awards in Sydney, NSW, Australia. (paralympic.org, 09 Dec 2016' paralympic.org.au, 18 Nov 2016)

She received the 2015 Paralympic Swimmer of the Year award from Swimming Australia. (swimswam.com, 05 Sep 2015)

In 2015 she was named Young Athlete of the Year with an Impairment at the New South Wales Sport Awards in Australia. (theherald.com.au, 20 Feb 2015)

She received the Medal of the Order of Australia [OAM] in 2014. (maitlandmercury.com.au, 26 Jan 2014)

In 2012 and 2013 she was named Sportsperson of the Year in Maitland, NSW, Australia. (maitlandmercury.com.au, 02 Apr 2014)

She was named the 2012 Young Athlete of the Year by the Australian Paralympic Committee [APC]. (maitlandmercury.com.au, 26 Jan 2014)

At age 13 years and 305 days she became Australia's youngest Paralympic gold medallist when she was part of the team that finished first in the S34 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. (paralympic.org.au, 09 Dec 2016)

She was the first S8 female swimmer from any nation to swim the 50m freestyle in under 30 seconds. She achieved the feat at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, recording a time of 29.73s in the S8 final to win gold. (swimswam.com, 01 Oct 2016; paralympic.org.au, 17 Sep 2016)

To compete at a total of five Paralympic Games over the course of her career. (paralympic.org.au, 09 Dec 2016)

She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age four. The condition affects the right side of her body. (paralympic.org.au, 09 Dec 2016)

SWIMMING BREAK
Following her reclassification to the S9 category in 2017, and missing out on qualification for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, she has not taken part in competitive swimming. In January 2021, she said she was unsure if she would return to the sport. "Lately I've been asked, 'Are you back swimming?' or, 'Will you ever get back into swimming?' To tell you the truth I can't answer those questions. Why? Because I don't even know the answer myself." (Instagram profile, 07 Jan 2021; Instagram profile,13 Jul 2018)

RECLASSIFICATION
She underwent a classification review at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, where she was moved from the S8 category into the S9 class [for athletes with less mobility impairment]. After placing 14th in the S9 100m backstroke at the event, she was reclassified for a second time and moved back into the S8 category. She then competed in the S8 100m backstroke in Glasgow and won the silver medal. In 2017 she was moved into the S9 category for a second time, and she has since revealed that she became a target for online bullies following her first reclassification in 2015. "[The cyber-bullying] affected me to the point where I feel like I don't want to go to things that people ask me to go to. I feel that I don't deserve it or deserve to mention any of my records or medals anymore. I've had anxiety, I've felt depressed and I got to a point where I wanted to quit swimming altogether. It's affected me so much that I don't want to attend training, I just want to cry. And it just hurts. Bullying on a keyboard is not OK. Those people doing it need to stop because it's affecting people's mental health, it's affecting their future." (si.com, 03 Mar 2020; news.com.au, 27 Mar 2019)