Lakeisha Patterson

Lakeisha Dawn Patterson, OAM (born 5 January 1999) is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She won medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, she won Australia's first gold medal of the games in a world record time swim in the Women's 400m freestyle S8.

Lakeisha Patterson
2016 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Patterson
Personal information
Full nameLakeisha Patterson
Nickname(s)Lucky
NationalityAustralian
Born (1999-01-05) 5 January 1999
Wodonga, Victoria
Sport
SportSwimming
ClassificationsS8
Medal record
Women's paralympic swimming
Representing  Australia
Paralympics
2016 Rio de Janeiro400 m freestyle S8
2016 Rio de Janeiro4×100 m freestyle
2016 Rio de Janeiro50m freestyle S8
2016 Rio de Janeiro100m freestyle S8
2016 Rio de Janeiro4×100 m medley
2016 Rio de Janeiro200m individual medley S8
World Para Swimming Championships
2015 Glasgow4x100 m freestyle
2019 London400 m freestyle S9
2015 Glasgow50 m freestyle S8
2015 Glasgow4x100 medley
2015 Glasgow100 m freestyle S8
2015 Glasgow400 m freestyle S8
Commonwealth Games
2018 Gold Coast50 m freestyle S8
2018 Gold Coast100 m freestyle S8
2014 Glasgow100 m freestyle S8

Personal

Patterson was born on 5 January 1999 in Wodonga, Victoria.[1] She has early onset Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and cerebral palsy left hemiplegia.[2][3] She lives on Bribie Island, Queensland.[4]

Career

Patterson started swimming at the age of three as part of her rehabilitation to overcome muscle stiffness.[4] She is classified as an S8 swimmer. She initially trained under Steve Hadler at Southern Cross Swimming Club, Scarborough and Suellyn Fraser at the Bribie Island Aquatic Leisure Centre.[4]

Patterson after winning the 400m freestyle at the Rio Paralympics

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, she won the bronze medal in the Women's 100 m Freestyle S8.[2] Competing at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, she won a gold medal in the Women's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay 34 points, silver medals in the Women's 50 m Freestyle S8 and Women's 4 × 100 m Medley Relay 34 points and bronze medals in the Women's 100 m Freestyle S8 and Women's 400 m Freestyle S8.[5][6][7] She finished fifth in the Women's 100m Backstroke S8.[8]

In April 2016, she was selected as part of the national team for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.[9] She won Australia's first gold medal of the Rio Paralympics in winning the Women's 400m Freestyle S8, she set a new World record, Paralympic record, and Oceania record of 4:40:33, slicing 0.11 seconds of the previous world record time set by her long-time idol, American Jessica Long, who came in second.[10][11] She was a member of the team that won the gold medal in the Women's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay 34 points. Three silver medals were won in the Women's 50 m and 100m Freestyle S8 behind Maddison Elliott and the Women's 4 × 100 m Medley Relay 34 points.[12]

In reflection on competing at Rio 2016, Patterson says "If someone told me one year ago that this is where I'd be I would have said, 'no, this is a joke.'"[13] But after winning her first gold medal against Jessica Long, she states "I knew I had to attack and go out hard and keep fighting for it, and I knew she was right behind me, so I just had to keep going forward."[14]

At the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London, she won the gold medal in the Women's 400 m Freestyle S9.[15]

In 2015, she was coached by Jan Cameron at the University of the Sunshine Coast Paralympic Training Centre.[1] In early 2016, she joined the Lawnton Swim Club to train under coach Harley Connolly.[16] In 2016, she is a Queensland Academy of Sport scholarship holder.[17]


Recognition
  • 2016 – Queensland Athlete with a Disability Award [18]
  • 2016 – Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association Senior Female Athlete of the Year.[19]
  • 2017 – Medal of the Order of Australia[20]
  • 2017 – Swimming Australia Mrs. Gina Rinehart Patron Award[21]
  • 2018 - UniSport Australia - Outstanding Performance by an Athlete with a Disability[22]
  • 2019 - Swimming Australia Paralympic Program Swimmer of the Year (joint winner with Tiffany Thomas Kane) [23]
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References
  1. "Lakeisha Patterson". Swimming Australia website. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  2. "Lakeisha Patterson'". 2014 Commonwealth Games website. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  3. "Story Of The Month: Lakeisha Patterson". Future State Greats. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  4. "Lakeisha Patterson makes a splash with medal haul". Caboulture News. 1 April 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  5. "Six golds and one world record for Ukraine at Glasgow 2015". International Paralympic Committee News, 16 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  6. "Aussies unite for a nail biting bronze medal win in the men's relay". Swimming Australia News, 18 July 2015. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  7. "Seven golds in seven days for Dias at Glasgow 2015". International Paralympic Committee News, 19 July 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  8. "Lakeisha Patterson results". Glasgow 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  9. "Swimming Australia Paralympic Squad Announcement". Swimming Australia News, 13 April 2016. Archived from the original on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  10. "Lakeisha Patterson 2016 Paralympic results". Rio-2016 Schedule & Results, Results – Women's 400m Freestyle – S8 Final. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  11. "Lakeisha Patterson claims Australia's first gold medal of Rio Paralympics". The Guardian. 9 September 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  12. "Lakeisha Patterson". Rio Paralympics Official site. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  13. Spits, Scott. "io Paralympics: Swimmer Lakeisha Patterson wins Australia's first gold medal". SMH Sport. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  14. "Rio 2016 Paralympics: Lakeisha Patterson wins gold in world record time, Powell takes silver". News ABC. ABC News. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  15. "Lakeisha Patterson". 2019 World Para Swimming Championships Results. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  16. Grams, Jacob (17 April 2016). "Olympics and Paralympics beckon for Moreton products Taylor McKeown, Lakeisha Patterson, Brenden Hall and Blake Cochrane". Caboolture Shire Herald. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  17. "Lakeisha Patterson". Queensland Academy of Sport website. Archived from the original on 21 April 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  18. "Cate Campbell takes out top honour at Queensland Sport awards" (PDF). Q. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  19. "2016 Annual Awards winners". Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association website. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  20. "OAM Final Media Notes (M-R)" (PDF). Governor General of Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  21. "Emily Seebohm and Emma McKeon reign supreme at Swimming's Gala Awards Night". Swimming Australia website. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  22. "2018 UniSport award winners". UniSport Australia twitter. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  23. "Triple Treat for 'Arnie' at Swimming's Night of Nights". Swimming Australia. 24 November 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
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