Bethany Firth

Bethany Firth
Personal information
Nationality Irish
British
Born (1996-02-14) 14 February 1996
Residence Seaforde, County Down, Northern Ireland
Height 172.7 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Club Ards Swim Club
Medal record
Representing  Ireland
Women's swimming
Paralympic Games
2012 London 100 m backstroke S14
IPC World Championships
2013 Montreal 100 m breaststroke S14

Bethany Firth (born 14 February 1996) is a Northern Irish swimmer competing for Great Britain as of 2014; previously Firth had competed, and won a gold medal, for Ireland at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Firth was born in Seaforde, County Down and competes in the S14 classification.

Swimming career

On 31 August, 2012 Firth, competing for Ireland in her first Paralympics, won a gold medal at the 2012 Paralympic games in London in the S14 100 metres backstroke final while representing Ireland.[1] [2] Firth, who has learning difficulties, had been swimming for only three years.

Firth won three silver medals at the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships.[3]

Later in the same year she announced her intention to switch national team and swim for Team GB instead of Ireland after serving a period out of competition.[4] The following year she represented Northern Ireland in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, competing in seven events against able-bodied athletes.[5]

In March 2015 Firth broke the world record for the S14 100m breaststroke in qualifying for that year's IPC World Championships.[6] Firth failed to compete in the World Championships after suffering a fractured wrist in training just a few days before the competition.[7]

On the 26 April 2016, in the qualifiers for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Firth set a new world record in the S14 200 metres freestyle.[8] Competing at the British Para-International meet in Glasgow, she recorded a time of 2:03.70.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "NI's golden girl Bethany Firth 'over the moon' with Paralympic gold". BBC Sport. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  2. ↑ "Bethany Firth". www.london2012.com. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  3. ↑ "Third silver for Firth at IPC World Championships in Montreal". BBC Sport. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "BBC Sport - Bethany Firth: Swimmer switches from Ireland to Great Britain". BBC Sport. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  5. ↑ Simon, Nic (26 July 2014). "Firth enjoys first action on equal terms alongside world's elite". Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  6. ↑ Luney,Graham (27 March 2015). "Golden girl Bethany Firth is on top of the world". Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  7. ↑ "Injured Bethany Firth ruled out of IPC World Championships". BBC Sport. 2 July 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Bethany Firth, Eleanor Simmonds Set World Records at Para-International". swimmingworldmagazine.com. 26 April 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
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