“I had no concept of what any of that would mean, but I just held onto those goals,” says Steele, who can now boast a remarkable 13-year swimming career, with the titles of Paralympian and gold medalist under her belt. 

“We forget that we have this power within us to decide what it is that we want to have in our lives,” says Steele.

Connecting to this power from a young age, Steele won her first gold medal in competitive swimming at just 14. Then, at age 17, she represented Australia for the first time at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics in the 400-metre freestyle, breaking a national record. 

Steele was born with a congenital disability called Arthrogryposis, which affects the range of motion in the joints and impacts the cartilage in the body. She also developed Amniotic band syndrome (ABS) in the womb, affecting the shape of both her hands. 

“Sport has been everything,” says Steele. “It has shaped me. It has shaped how I react to things, and how I have managed my disability.”

“We create our own reality,” she says. 

“Things are always going to happen in your life, but it’s how you react to those things. And so when I was a kid – and when I was early in my swimming career – I would react in a way that was like a victim because the world was telling me I was a victim. But then I realised I could change that narrative and go ‘well, you might see me like that, but I don’t see myself like that’.”

Throughout her swimming career, Steele has represented Australia internationally five times, including at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. She’s also been captain of a number of Aussie swimming teams and held a Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship for eight years. 

After swimming, Steele took up wheelchair rugby. She was the only woman to be selected to play for Victoria at a national level. 

Today, Steele is an award-winning sportswoman, experienced personal coach and motivational speaker, who works in the personal development space as The Self Belief Agent. 

She’s also the Project Manager for the ‘Building Inclusive Sport Clubs’ program to promote the access and inclusion of people with disabilities in sporting clubs across Australia, working with Disability Sport Australia.

Recently, Steele was selected by the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation to become a Change Our Game ambassador. Steele is joined by seven other inspiring women in this movement to raise awareness on key issues in women’s sport. 

Steele is using this advocacy platform to create equitable change for all people with disabilities in sport. 

Emphasising the importance of her role with the Change Our Game movement, Steele says she’s proud that she and the other ambassadors have a direct opportunity to help other people feel the positive, life-changing aspects of sport that they’ve experienced. 

She says they’re able to do this “by breaking down inclusion and access issues and being able to share our expertise and make it easier for people to access the sports that they want to play.”

Looking back at her own sporting career, Steele can see clearly the changes she wished had been in place when she was competing at such a high level. These are the changes she’s working to implement for the next generation. 

And while there are some days where this change might feel impossible, Steele remains optimistic about the future.

“There are going to be days when you feel like you’re hitting your head against a brick wall,” she says. “And on those days, you just need to go for a walk or a swim in the ocean.”

“We’re not going to change the world in 24 hours because there’s so many different ways that people view women and sport and disability.” 

“We’ve all got our own perceptions or ideals of how people are meant to behave, but sometimes we need to put them aside for a bit so we can learn from other people,” she adds. 

“It’s okay if you just go, and take a deep breath, and start again.”

Change Our Game Ambassadors are using their platforms to help drive change and raise awareness on key issues and barriers for women in sport. Change Our Game is led by the Office of Women in Sport and Recreation to level the playing field for women and girls. Be sure to follow the Ambassadors’ journeys through @ChangeOurGame on socials.

The post ‘We create our own reality’: Paralympian Elle Steele on changing the narrative for women with disability appeared first on Women's Agenda.

Ariarne Titmus won her 400m freestyle race in a record time of 3:55.38, reclaiming her title as record holder by beating American Katie Ledecky and Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh.

The 22-year old becomes the first swimmer ever to go under the 3:56 barrier. 

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A post shared by Ariarne Titmus (@ariarnetitmus_)

Titmus said her win was her “most satisfying.”

“I’ve put in a lot of work the last six weeks and I took a lot away from trials,” she told Channel 9. “I swam the way I wanted to. I knew I had enough time to turn that around. And I came in tonight and just tried to be fearless and race again and it paid off.”

Footage of Titmus’ coach Dean Boxall’s demonstrative display of exuberance on the spectator stands has been going viral since Sunday night. 

Australia’s women’s relay team also broke their own world record when they won the 4x100m freestyle relay, in a time of 3:27.96.

With an average split time of 51.99, each swimmer — Mollie O’Callaghan, Meg Harris, Shayna Jack and Emma McKeon, broke their own world record set at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. 

“We had an amazing time, and I think that’s what you saw in the pool – four girls having the best time of their lives,” Shayna Jack said after the race. 

Her teammate, Meg Harris described the evening’s race as “insane.”

“You’ve seen amazing things already,” she said. “Everything in swimming is a team effort, whether you’re an individual swimmer or a relay.”

The Aussie men’s team also won the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay — making it the first time Australia has secured gold medals for both men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle relay at a world championships.

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Joffle, who had epithelioid sarcoma as a child (a rare type of slow-growing, soft tissue cancer) completed the crossing on Sunday in a time of nine hours and 22 minutes. 

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A post shared by Marion Joffle (@marion_jf)

The Caen-resident swam the 34 kilometres route from Dover, a major ferry port in Kent, South East England to the northern French Cape of Cap Gris-Nez. 

A team of supporters live-streamed her swim on her public Facebook page, while accompanying her journey on an adjacent boat. 

“To spend nine hours and 22 minutes in saltwater and to swim non-stop from England to France is really exhausting, but I stick with the positives and I still have an enormous smile [on my face] for having linked up two countries by swimming,” Joffle told France 3.

“I trained really hard for this crossing attempt. I was ready mentally, and therefore physically as well. During the crossing, I had high and low points, but I was able to get to the end of the challenge.” 

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A post shared by Marion Joffle (@marion_jf)

Joffle’s swim raised raised over €7,500 for the Institut Curie Caner Research Foundation in Paris, a leading medical research centre specialising in the treatment of cancer.

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A post shared by Marion Joffle (@marion_jf)

Her latest swim breaks the previous record held by then 17-year old Marion Hans, who swam the Channel in nine hours and 42 minutes in 1994. 

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McKeon won gold in the women’s 50m freestyle, coming in ahead of fellow Australians Meg Watson who won silver and Shayna Jack with bronze.

McKeon surpasses the records of Australian swimming greats Susie O’Neil, Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones, who each hold 10 gold medals from the Commonwealth Games. McKeon now stands in a league of her own.

“It’s really nice to be mentioned alongside some of those names and I will be part of that history for years to come, hopefully,” McKeon said after making history.

“They’re the ones who inspired me when I was young. I remember watching them on TV and that lit the fire in me to be where I am now.

“It is special. It makes me reflect on the last eight years since my first Commonwealth Games. I can see how far I’ve come as a person and an athlete.”

McKeon’s win in the 50m freestyle follows other wins in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay and the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay. She has previously won four golds medals at both the 2018 Gold Coast Games and in 2014 in Glasgow.

During the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, McKeon also became Australia’s most decorated Olympian, with 11 medals to her name with five gold, two silver and four bronze.

Her success in the pool comes as other Australian women also make their mark in Birmingham, with Ariarne Titmus, Madi Wilson, Kiah Melverton and Mollie O’Callaghan taking out the gold medal in the women’s 4x200m freestyle. They set a new world record at 7 minutes 39.29 seconds.

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The 18-year-old overcame some pre-race “panic” to win over Sarah Sjostrom from Sweden, with a time of 52.67 seconds. O’Callaghan turned in sixth position after the first 50 metres, and was swimming in third position for much of the final lap. She sped into the lead not far from the finish, overtaking Sjostrom and American Torri Huske to finish in first place.

The Australian said afterwards she had suffered from a bout of panic before the race.

 “It was bad, the worst ever,” she said.

“I was panicking a little in the warm up, I had a little cramp in my leg and I just felt a little out of it but I had teammates like Madi Wilson there and especially (coach) Dean (Boxall) supporting me which gave me the lift I needed for this race.

“I had to just trust myself and focus on my race, especially for my back end. I was just thinking I had to try and stick with the girls and execute Dean’s race plan as best I could and at the end of the day it was about experience, not necessarily time. Gaining that experience has been awesome this week.”

O’Callaghan’s impressive win marks her first individual gold medal of the world championships, and her fourth medal overall.

She previously won gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle on the first day of the championships, and has also won silver in the 200m freestyle, and the 4x200m relay.

With her gold in the 100m freestyle, O’Callaghan officially becomes the youngest world record holder in the event in more than 30 years. She takes the title from the United States’ Nicole Haislett, who won in 1991, also aged 18.

Meanwhile, fellow Australian Jenna Strauch has just won silver in the 200m breaststroke. It marks the first medal for Australia in a women’s breaststroke event since Leisel Jones in 2011. Strauch is swimming in her first international swim meet.

“It’s a dream come true really,” Strauch said.

“I was just hoping to make the Final and get all the experience I could so to walk away having stood on the podium has exceeded all my expectations.”

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Swimming’s world governing body, FINA, announced this week that trans women will not be eligible to compete in women’s competitions, unless they completed their transition before the age of 12, or before they reached stage two on the puberty Tanner Scale.

FINA has also said it will create a working group to establish an “open” category in some events. The new policy was passed with 71 per cent of the vote among its members.

“We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness at our events, especially the women’s category at FINA competitions,” FINA President, Husain Al-Musallam, said.

The controversial decision has sparked heavy criticism from trans rights advocates and some prominent sporting figures. But global football body FIFA and World Athletics have backed in the move, and confirmed they are looking to review their own policies when it comes to transgender athletes.

Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, praised swimming for its policy, and said his responsibility was “to protect the integrity of women’s sport”.

“We see an international federation asserting its primacy in setting rules, regulations and policies that are in the best interest of its sport,” Coe told the BBC.

“This is as it should be. We have always believed that biology trumps gender, and we will continue to review our regulations in line with this.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for FIFA confirmed football was reviewing its policies.

“FIFA is currently reviewing its gender eligibility regulations in consultation with expert stakeholders,” said the spokesperson. “Due to the ongoing nature of the process, FIFA is not in a position to comment on specifics of proposed amendments to the existing regulations.”

Australian swimmer Cate Campbell offered her support to FINA’s ban of transgender athletes when she addressed the world swimming body.

“To create a place that is inclusive, is to create a space that is fair. Transgender, gender-diverse and non-binary athletes’ inclusion in the female category of elite sport, is one of the few occasions where these two principles come into conflict,” Campbell said in a speech to FINA.

“We see you, value you, and accept you. My role, however, is also to stand up here, having asked our world governing body, FINA, to investigate, deliberate and uphold the cornerstone of fairness in elite women’s competition.

“And it pains me — that this part of my role — may injure, infuriate and, potentially, alienate people from an already marginalised [transgender] community.”

The ban of trans women competing in elite women’s swimming comes in the wake of transgender athlete Lia Thomas’ historic win of a National Collegiate Athletic Association swimming title in the United States last year.

Speaking to RN Breakfast radio on Tuesday morning, Nikki Dryden, a former Olympic swimmer and human rights lawyer, said the whole basis of the transgender ban in women’s swimming was “totally flawed”.

“The whole basis and this rhetoric of science is actually totally flawed and underpinning this entire policy is this assumed gender bias, that FINA now believes that all transgender women and all intersex women are actually men, and they are always going to be men in the eyes of FINA,” Dryden said.

“I was never trained to care about the person in the next lane and whether or not they were competing fairly. We were trained to swim in our own lane and do the best that we could do.

“This policing of all women’s bodies, in order to stop really just one swimmer, it doesn’t stand up when you start looking at it in more detail.”

Dryden said that the ban is not actually about protecting women’s sport, noting she thought it was a form of discrimination against all women.

“As a lawyer, if Lia Thomas is listening…call me. I’d love to take this to court, all the way up to the court of arbitration for sport,” Dryden said.

“There is no way this could stand up internationally under human rights rules and universal principles of human rights. But this won’t stand up in a lot of domestic courts as well. Australia, Canada, we all have human rights and anti-discrimination legislation and I don’t see how this is going to pass.”

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Soul Cap produces swimming caps that are specifically designed to fit over afros, dreadlocks, braids and thick, curly hair. The company has said the swimming body rejected its product because it did not fit “the natural form of the head” and that to their “best knowledge the athletes competing at the international events never used, neither require … caps of such size and configuration”.

Soul Cap’s ethos is to design products for all hair types, to make swimming a more inclusive place. The rejection submission sparked outrage, as it came just days after British swimmer Alice Dearing became the country’s first black female swimmer to qualify for the Olympics. She had partnered with Soul Cap prior to qualifying to promote diversity in swimming.

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A post shared by Alice Dearing (@alicedearingx)

FINA has since released a statement, saying it is reviewing its Soul Cap ban for competition use.

“FINA is committed to ensuring that all aquatics athletes have access to appropriate swimwear for competition where this swimwear does not confer a competitive advantage,” the statement said.

“FINA is currently reviewing the situation with regards to “Soul Cap” and similar products, understanding the importance of inclusivity and representation.”

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A post shared by SOUL CAP | Swim For All (@soulcapofficial)

In a statement on social media, Soul Cap founders Michael and Toks said their products have helped “thousands of swimmers find their love for the water, by giving them the freedom to not have to choose between the sport they love and the hair they love”.

“This is just the start of a much wider and overdue push for change in the world of aquatics – we hope you’re down to ride this wave with us and the swim community,” the founders said.

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Groves, who won two silver medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, announced her withdrawal from the Australian trials on social media on Wednesday, just days before the trials are set to begin in Adelaide on Saturday.

“Let this be a lesson to all misogynistic perverts in sport and their boot lickers,” she tweeted. “You can no longer exploit young women and girls, body shame or medically gaslight them and then expect them to represent you so you can earn your annual bonus. Time’s UP.”

Let this be a lesson to all misogynistic perverts in sport and their boot lickers – You can no longer exploit young women and girls, body shame or medically gaslight them and then expect them to represent you so you can earn your annual bonus. Time’s UP https://t.co/XMQCRPjNzK

— Maddie Groves (@MaddieGroves_) June 9, 2021

Groves then shared this tweet on Instagram, adding she was “putting this on the feed for emphasis.”

“Make them pervs quake in fear from the number of people supporting a statement that threatens their existence.”

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A post shared by Maddie Groves (@mad_groves)

Although it remains unclear who Groves is specifically referring to, she has publicly shared concerns about the alleged behaviour of an individual in the past.

In November 2020, Groves shared on social media that she had made a complaint about a “person that works at swimming making me feel uncomfortable the way they stare at me in my togs”. She added she thought the person had been given a promotion at the time.

She followed up that tweet with another post saying: “Woah guys this may have worked. Next time you have a weirdo stare at your tits and your complaints fall on deaf ears, try tweeting about it.”

The 26-year-old swimmer indicated she intends to continue swimming and will race in other competitions later this year despite missing the Olympics.

“I’m so grateful to feel so supported in this decision,” she said. “I feel very relieved and I’m looking forward to racing at some other competitions later in the year.”

In her first Olympics in 2016, Grove took home silver medals in the 200m butterfly and the 4x100m medley. Groves is also a dual Commonwealth games gold medallist.

Swimming Australia said they had reached out to Groves following her allegations last year.

“Swimming Australia reached out to Maddie in December 2020 to enquire about a tweet sent by her that referenced potential abuse by someone connected with swimming,” Swimming Australia said in a statement.

“Maddie declined to provide further information nor do we have any previous complaints on record from Maddie.”

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On Friday, the teenager outperformed her own record for the 200m backstroke, with a time of 2:04.31, cutting 0.19 seconds off her best.

On Saturday, in an impressive swim, McKeown broke the Australian record for the 100m backstroke, clocking a time of 57.63 – just 0.06 seconds short of the world record. It was the second fastest 100m backstroke swim of all-time, falling just short of Regan Smith’s record set in 2019. McKeown narrowly missed out on becoming the only Australian to hold an individual long-course world record.

On Sunday, she set another Australian record with a 27.16 second 50m backstroke swim. She did this just half an hour after winning gold in the 200m individual medley final. McKeown’s time was 0.18 seconds short of 50m backstroke world record, set by China’s Liu Xiang in 2018.

The trifecta of record-breaking swims has confirmed McKeown’s position as one of Australia’s gold medal hopefuls ahead of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

NEW COMMONWEALTH AND AUSTRALIAN RECORD

First the 200m. Then the 100m. Now the 50m back.

Kaylee McKeown is on fire setting the new record with the time of 27.16, outside the world record time by 0.18. pic.twitter.com/j4JuiAREdh

— Australian Swim Team (@DolphinsAUS) May 16, 2021

“I wasn’t expecting to come out and do that swim this morning and I’ve got no complaints about it. I’m pretty happy,” McKeown said after the 100m swim. “I looked (up) and I was like, ‘Oh surely not. Oh s**t’. Those were literally the words that came to my mind.”

“It’s a good surprise … pretty stoked with it, not going to lie. I wasn’t expecting to come out and do that swim this morning.

“I don’t necessarily think about (records). I rock up to the meet and do the best I can.

“It’s a pretty outstanding world record to be chasing, and there are a lot of girls out there who are still chasing those times.”

McKeown’s impressive run at the Sydney Open comes after she set a new world record last November, when she claimed the 200m backstroke at the National short course swimming championships in Brisbane. At that event, she clocked a time of 1 minute 58.94, surpassing a 6-year record of 1:59.23 set by Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu in 2014.

She is one of the youngest members of the Dolphins team, having made her debut at age 15 after qualifying for the World Championships in 2017.

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The 19-year-old Olympic hopeful clocked a time of 1 minute 58.94, surpassing a 6-year record of 1:59.23 set by Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu in 2014.

“Short course is something we don’t get to do very often so I was excited to see what I could put up after some solid training this year,” McKeown said after the swim.

“I headed over to my teammates and my coach and they said ‘you just got a world record’ and I was like, ‘what?’. I didn’t actually know until a few minutes later.

“It feels good and definitely different in a year where I have had my ups and downs. It’s the hardest year that I’ve gone through with my father passing away in August. He has been a motivation behind me so I just want to give it my best while I can.”

The short course championships were held virtually this year due to the pandemic, with swimmers competing at different venues around Australia.

In long course, McKeown has previously won gold in the 50m backstroke, silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m at the Youth Olympic Games, held in 2018 in Buenos Aires. She had more success last year, claiming the senior world championships silvers in the 200m backstroke and 4x100m medley, in South Korea.

SC WORLD RECORD

Kaylee McKeown clocked a blistering time of 1:58.94 to knock off Hungarian Katinka Hosszu’s 2014 world record (1:59.23) in the Women’s 200m backstroke #VirtualShortCourse pic.twitter.com/Xyj2Df13u4

— Swimming Australia (@SwimmingAUS) November 28, 2020

Earlier this month, McKeown broke Australian records in the long course 100m and 200m backstroke in Brisbane.

She is one of the youngest members of the Dolphins team, having made her debut at age 15 after qualifying for the World Championships in 2017.

With the Olympics postponed until next year in Tokyo, McKeown has her sights firmly set on representing Australia at the event.

“In Australia, we have some of the top women in the world racing in my events, so it’s tough,” she told the Olympic website last month.

“But being able to go to the Olympic Games is what I’ve been dreaming of.”

***

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Ariarne Titmus, Madison Wilson, Brianna Throssell and Emma McKeon won gold in a thrilling 7 minutes, 41.50 seconds, taking down China’s previous record of 7:42.08. The record has been unbeaten since 2009.

The United States took home the silver at 7:41.87 and Canada came in third at 7:44.35.

Titmus, the teenager who won gold on Sunday against the US powerhouse Katie Ledecky, was the first off the blocks and set a rapid pace at 1:54.27 for her leg of the swim. Hers was the fastest leg of the race.

 

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WORLD RECORD alongside these amazing girls, tonight was swimmagical stuff couldn’t have done it without the help of our girls @leahneale95 and @melvertonkiah this morning

A post shared by ARIARNE TITMUS (@ariarnetitmus_) on Jul 25, 2019 at 8:30am PDT

Australia dropped back in second position for much of the second and third legs of the relay until McKeon swam a brilliant anchor leg to overtake the US team and seal victory, and a world record, for Australia. McKeon was recovering from illness at the time of the race but still found enough strength to put the Australian team over the edge in the final metres.

Gold for Titmus, Wilson, Throssell and McKeon pic.twitter.com/gSvtHPg1nk

— Australian Swim Team (@DolphinsAUS) July 25, 2019

The win marks the first time Australia has won the women’s 4x200m world title.

“Just touching the wall and seeing the three others celebrate, it made me so excited,” McKeon told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I wasn’t thinking about a world record, that was the key. Was it a 2009 record? To break that this year is so exciting.

After the record-breaking swim, 18-year-old Titmus paid tribute to McKeon, who has been one of Australia’s top swimmers over the past decade.

“I really wanted to do my job for the girls. If we really wanted to have a crack at the world record, I would have to play my part,” Titmus said.

“Emma [McKeon] was so gutsy… to come up and do that. To be able to pull that out in the relay is just incredible. I’m so proud of her.”

Watch the highlights of the memorable race below.

WORLD RECORD! What a way to end the session! A great duel between two huge swimming nations, USA and Australia, in the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay. #Swimming #FINAGwangju2019 pic.twitter.com/bRbA1yvNLl

— FINA (@fina1908) July 25, 2019

The post Australia wins women’s 4×200 freestyle gold & smashes 10-year world record appeared first on Women's Agenda.

Titmus started to gain metres on Katie Ledecky in the last 50 metres of the 400m swim, overtaking her with only a few metres to go, winning in 3:58.76.

She is the first Australian woman to claim the world 400m title since Tracey Wickham in 1978.

Legendary duel between Australia’s Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky of USA in the Women’s 400m Freestyle! Titmus overtaking Ledecky with only a few meters to go, winning in 3:58.76. All the action live on https://t.co/bEozhdW5qV #FINAGwangju2019 #Swimming #FINA pic.twitter.com/xknw7yMLxH

— FINA (@fina1908) July 21, 2019

The untouchable Ledecky had never lost a 400m freestyle race on a major international stage before and has held a tight grip on every swim upwards of 400m since 2013.

How did Titmus feel after taking on a five-time Olympic champion and coming away with the win?

“I feel pretty normal,” Titmus said afterwards. “It was just a swimming race. Dean said to me there were three outcomes; you could swim great, you could swim good, you could swim bad but you will still wake up tomorrow.”

Sunday comprised high and lows for Australian female athletes on the world stage.

In Cricket, the Southern Stars retained the Women’s Ashes after a draw in the one-off Test match gave the side a striking 8-2 lead in the series. With a first innings lead of 145, Australia only needed to avoid a loss in order to take home the Ashes. Australia ended the game  on 6-221.

Thanks for the contest, @englandcricket !

We’ll see you Friday for the first #Ashes T20… pic.twitter.com/sDhpMe5M3F

— Australian Women’s Cricket Team (@SouthernStars) July 21, 2019

Ellyse Perry continued her excellent form with another half-century from 88 deliveries, adding to the 116 runs she scored in the first innings.

The Diamonds suffered major heartbreak after losing the Netball World Cup to New Zealand by a single goal on Sunday. In the sixth successive World Cup match-up between the two countries, New Zealand came out on top with a final score of 52-51.

What a game.

We didn’t get there and it hurts, but we gave it our all and left everything out there on the court today and these past 10 days.

Congratulations to New Zealand for an incredible performance today. #ShineBright#nwc2019 pic.twitter.com/zf5RG5nUJj

— Samsung Diamonds (@AussieDiamonds) July 21, 2019

“Coming into this I had no idea what to expect,” midcourter Kelsey Browne told the ABC.

“It’s been a huge week and I’m really proud to be part of it. I didn’t know if I was every going to make it, so to play in my first ever World Cup I’m over the Moon. I just wish it went the other way.”

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