Ben Popham Explained

Ben Popham
Headercolor:Green
Nationality:Australian
Birth Date:4 September 2000
Country:Australia
Sport:Paralympic swimming
Disability Class:S9 SB8, SM9
Club:Arena Swim Club
Coach:Simon Redmond

Ben Popham (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.

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.

Swimming career

Popham commenced swimming as a seven year old as part of his physical therapy program for cerebral palsy. 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

Notes and References

  1. News: Ben Popham (18) finalist for WA Sports Star award after 2018 international swimming feat. Rifici. Victoria. 17 January 2019. Western Suburbs Weekly. 9 September 2019.
  2. News: Tokyo Paralympics: Former Telethon Kid, WA's Ben Popham, qualifies fastest for 100m freestyle S8 final. Smith. Ben. 25 August 2021. PerthNow. 25 August 2021.
  3. Web site: Ben Popham. Swimming Australia website. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200124193650/https://www.swimming.org.au/athletes/ben-popham . 24 January 2020 . 9 September 2019.
  4. Web site: Ben Popham results. 9 September 2019. 2019 World Para Swimming Championships results. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210826090705/https://www.paralympic.org/london-2019/schedule-results/info-live-results/swlo19/eng/zb/engzb_swimming-athlete-profile-n36209-popham-ben.htm . 26 August 2021 . 10 September 2019.
  5. Web site: Men's Relay Team Smash World Record to Capture Gold Swimming Australia . 2022-07-11 . www.swimming.org.au.
  6. Web site: 16 June 2021. Paralympics Australia Names Powerful Para-Swimming Team For Tokyo. live. 17 June 2021. Paralympics Australia. https://web.archive.org/web/20210616114345/https://www.paralympic.org.au/2021/06/paralympics-australia-names-powerful-para-swimming-team-for-tokyo/ . 16 June 2021 .
  7. Web site: Ben Popham Results. live. 25 August 2021. Tokyo Paralympics Official Results. https://web.archive.org/web/20210825115046/https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/paralympic-games/en/results/swimming/athlete-profile-n1498347-popham-ben.htm . 25 August 2021 .
  8. Web site: Ben Popham and Zoe Arancini win Curtin University Sports Awards. Western Australian Institute of Sport. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200318082156/http://wais.org.au/other/news_detail.php?id=10180 . 18 March 2020 . 14 December 2019.
  9. Web site: Holly Barratt Named Western Australia's Swimmer of the year. live. 22 June 2021. SwimSwam. 24 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190607153815/https://swimswam.com/holly-barratt-named-western-australias-swimmer-of-the-year/ . 7 June 2019 .
  10. Web site: 12 February 2022. Historic Tokyo success celebrated in style. 14 February 2022. Swimming Australia.
  11. Web site: Australia Day 2022 Honours List. 26 January 2022. Governor-General of Australia.

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