Para-swimming
On talent alone, freestyle specialist Ben Popham has what it takes to become one of his country’s Para-swimming greats.
Read MoreOn talent alone, freestyle specialist Ben Popham has what it takes to become one of his country’s Para-swimming greats.
Ben, who has diplegic cerebral palsy, was seven when his physiotherapist gave him two choices – Para-equestrian or Para-swimming. As fate would have it, he chose the pool, and spent the next decade working towards selection to the Australian Para-swimming team.
That call-up would come at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para-swimming Championships. Ben exploded onto the world stage as only a star knows how, with dual gold in the men’s 100m freestyle S8 and men’s 4x100m freestyle 34 Points, alongside Paralympic teammates Matthew Levy, Timothy Disken and Rowan Crothers.
And it was no fluke, either. Competing at last September’s World Para-swimming Championships in London, England, Ben won three of the Australian team’s 23 medals – silver in the men’s 100m freestyle S8, and bronze in the men’s 50m freestyle S8 and men’s 4x100m freestyle 34 Points.
Making his Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020, the 20-year-old claimed the gold medal in the men’s 100m freestyle S8, touching the wall in 57.37.
In the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay 334 points, with Rowan Crothers, Will Martin, and Matt Levy, the team smashed Italy’s world record by nearly two seconds to triumph for gold in 3:44.31.
Ben left nothing in the tank when he lined up in the men’s 400m freestyle S8. Fighting it out until the very end, Ben placed eighth overall in a time of 4:49.32.
He was part of the Australian swim team that captured a shimmering silver medal in the Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay 34 points as they bid farewell to the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on the final night of their 2020 Paralympic Games campaign. Soaring from lane three the Australian team proudly donned the gold cap for the final time to finish the race in 4:07.70, narrowly behind the Russian Paralympic Committee who posted 4:06.59 to break the world record.
Outside the pool, Ben is studying a Bachelor of Commerce at WA’s Curtin University, which he hopes to finish post the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
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