| Carolyn Connors |
Carolyn Connors (born 1960/1961)[1] is an Australian Paralympic swimmer with a vision impairment. She comes from Newcastle and has been blind since birth.[1] She began competitive swimming at the age of 12.[1] At the 1980 Arnhem Paralympics, where she was the only female Australian swimmer to be selected,[2] she won two silver medals in the Women's 100 m Butterfly A and Women's 100 m Freestyle A events and a bronze medal in the Women's 4x50 m Individual Medley A event.[3] She participated in the 1977 and 1982 FESPIC Games, winning four gold medals in the latter competition, and won 20 swimming gold medals throughout her career.[1] [2] She also broke a world record in the 100 m butterfly at the National Blind Swimming Championships in 1980.[2] Her first swimming coach was Dennis Day and she was later coached by Eric Arnold.[1]
She completed a year-long course at a teacher's college and was then told that she would not be allowed to do the practical teaching component.[1] After the teaching course she studied at the University of Newcastle, and was named the university's sportsperson of the year in 1981.[4] In 1983, she switched from swimming to athletics to allow herself more time to concentrate on her studies.[1]