Priya Cooper

Priya Naree Cooper, (born 2 October 1974) is an Australian world champion disabled swimmer, winning nine Paralympic gold medals as well as world records and world championships.

Priya Naree Cooper was born on 2 October 1974 in Perth, Western Australia.

She was born with cerebral palsy, and spends 75% of her time in a wheelchair.

As a youngster, she was encouraged by her mother to try out several sports, including tap dancing and ballet.

With her father's encouragement, Cooper first started swimming in her backyard pool when she was six years old.

Her first swimsuit was a bikini.

Her father taught her to swim while making her wear big yellow floaties.

She started competitive swimming at school carnivals.

In the first carnival she competed in, she finished sixth in the F-division 50 m butterfly.

She was informed about disabled athletes by a teacher at school.

Her initial reaction to learning about disabled sport was to question if she was "disabled enough" to compete.

She made her first national team appearance when she was in year 12 in school, after winning twelve gold medals in national swimming meets.

By that time, Cooper had already begun serious training, waking up at 4 a.m. to make sure she had time in the pool.

Cooper is a world champion disabled swimmer, winning nine Paralympic gold medals as well as world records and world championships.

She represented Wheelchair Sports Western Australia at the 1991 National Wheelchair Games, winning nine gold medals.

Her home pool was the Swan Park Leisure Centre in Midvale, Western Australia.

She had a number of coaches over the course of her competitive career, including Matthew Brown and Frank Ponta.

She competed in the Australian swimming team at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Summer Paralympics with an S8 classification.

At the age of 17, Cooper made her Paralympic debut at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona.

She was in danger of not going to the 1992 Paralympics because of funding issues for the Australian Paralympic Federation.

The Federation made an emergency appeal for funding from the public in order to cover the cost of transporting the Australian team to Barcelona.

A variety of small donations allowed Cooper and other Australian athletes to compete.

She won three gold and two silver medals, and broke two world records and three Paralympic records.

She was offered a non-residential Australian Institute of Sport Athletes with a Disability swimming scholarship in 1993 and was supported until 2000.

Cooper was a co-captain of the Australian team at the 1996 Summer Paralympics, where she competed in six individual events and two relay events in the S8 class, winning five gold medals, four individual and one team, one silver medal and one bronze medal.

She set world records at the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta in the 200 m medley and the 400 m freestyle swimming events.

She also set personal bests in the 100 m backstroke and 100 m freestyle.

Her world record time in the 400 m freestyle was 5:11.47, her 100 m backstroke time was 1:23.43, and her 100 m freestyle time was 1:12.08.

In 1998, Cooper competed at the Paralympic Swimming World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.

She set a world record in the 400m freestyle at the event.

She set another world record in the S8 classification, with an 800m freestyle time of 10:40.03, three seconds faster than the previous record.

She also won a gold medal in the 200m individual medley, with a finish that was half a second away from beating her own previous world record.

Cooper competed at the Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association-sponsored 1998 Queensland Championships in five swimming events.

She and Brad Thomas were invited to attend as special guest competitors.

While attending, Cooper also hosted a coaching clinic with Thomas.

In 1999, Cooper moved to Sydney, the location of the 2000 Summer Paralympics, to prepare for the Games.

She was twice the co-captain of the Australian Paralympic team, including at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, and carried the Australian flag at the closing ceremonies for the 1992 and 1996 Summer Paralympics.

Cooper has cerebral palsy and spends much of her time in a wheelchair.

She attended university, working on a course in health management.

After she ended her competitive Paralympic career, she became a commentator, and covered the swimming events at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.