Ben Popham
OAM
Ben Popham in 2019
Personal information
NationalityAustralian
Born (2000-09-04) 4 September 2000
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 place2020 Tokyo100m freestyle S8
Gold medal – first place2020 Tokyo4×100 m freestyle 34 pts
Silver medal – second place2020 Tokyo4×100 m medley 34 pts
World Para Swimming Championships
Silver medal – second place2019 London100m freestyle S8
Bronze medal – third place2019 London50m freestyle S8
Bronze medal – third place2019 London4x100m 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.[1] In 2011 he was chosen to be one of the Channel Seven Perth Telethon's "Little Telethon Stars".[2] In 2019, he commenced a Bachelor of Commerce at Curtin University.[1]

Swimming career

Popham commenced swimming as a seven year old as part of his physical therapy program for cerebral palsy.[1] 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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5] 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.[6][7] 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.[1]
  • 2019 – Curtin University Sportsman of the Year [8]
  • 2019 – Western Australian Swimming Multi-Class Swimmer of the Year[9]
  • 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[10]
  • 2022 – Medal of the Order of Australia for service to sport as a gold medallist at the Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020 [11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 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 Aaustralia'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.
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