| Headercolor: | yellow |
| Jack Swift | |
| Nationality: | Australian |
| Birth Date: | 8 August 1985 |
| Country: | Australia |
| Sport: | Paralympic athletics Paratriathlon |
Jack Swift (born 8 August 1985) is an Australian athletics competitor and paratriathlete. He was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics in the 400m and 4 × 100 m events.
Swift was born on 8 August 1985, and is from the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe[1] in Victoria. He attended Marcellin College,[1] and played Australian rules football while at school.[1]
In 2006,[1] Swift lost the lower part of his right leg when he was twenty-one years old after an accident while at work,[1] [2] "when a 14-tonne excavator fell and crushed his right leg".[1] Prior to his accident, he was a plumber's labourer.[1] He was a finalist for the 2011 Victorian Cleo Bachelor of the Year. In February 2011, he was on the cover of Australian Men's Health. He pursued a degree in exercise-science[1] from Deakin University.[1], he works as a personal trainer.
Swift competes in the T44 athletics classification. He became involved with athletics as a form of personal mental health improvement following his accident,[1] and had not competed in athletics prior to his accident.[1] In 2011, Swift was training as much as twenty-five hours a week.[1] In the 2011 Victorian Athletic League, he participated in the Athletes With a Disability 120m event, the only event open to athletes with disability during the season. In 2011, he was an Australian national ambulant 100m and 200m finalist.[3] At the 2011 Australian Athletics Championships, he finished third in the 200m wheelchair race final.[4] He assisted in unveiling the 2012 Australian Paralympic athletics uniform.[5] [6] He did this at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia Spring/Summer 2012/13 on day two at Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal on 1 May 2012.[6] He was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics[7] [8] [9] in the 400m and 4 × 100 m events.[2] He did not medal at the 2012 Games.
In April 2013, Swift raced his first sprint distance triathlon.[10] Based on his performance in this race, he was selected in Australia's 2013 ITU Triathlon World Championships paratriathlon team.[11] Like several other selected Australian athletes, he did not race. Swift competed in the 2014 Australian and Oceania Paratriathlon Championships, placing 2nd in the TRI-5 (moderate leg impairment) classification.[12] He also placed second TRI-5 in the ITU World Paratriathlon event in Elwood.[13] At the 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series Final in Edmonton, Canada, he finished eleventh in the Men's PT4.[14] In January 2015, Swift won the Oceania Paratriathlon Championships PT4 event at Penrith, New South Wales.[15] At the 2015 World Triathlon Series Final in Chicago, Swift finished twelfth in the Men's PT4.[16]
Swift now aims to qualify for paratriathlon at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.[17]