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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.

Ben Popham

OAM

Ben Popham in 2019
Personal information
Nationality	Australian
Born	(2000-09-04) 4 September 2000 (age 22)
Sport
Country	Australia
Sport	Paralympic swimming
Disability class	S9 SB8, SM9
Club	Arena Swim Club
Coached by	Simon Redmond
Medal record Representing  Australia Men's Swimming Paralympic Games 2020 Tokyo 100m freestyle S8 2020 Tokyo 4×100 m freestyle 34 pts 2020 Tokyo 4×100 m medley 34 pts World Para Swimming Championships 2019 London 100m freestyle S8 2019 London 50m freestyle S8 2019 London 4x100m freestyle 34 points

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

External links

• Ben Popham at Swimming Australia
• Ben Popham at Paralympics Australia
• Ben Popham at the International Paralympic Committee

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