Jessica Evelyn Pengelly (born 1 July 1991) is a South African-born Australian swimmer, who specializes in freestyle and individual medley events. A 2008 Olympian, she has claimed multiple South African championship titles and national records in the individual medley (both 200 and 400 m), and won a total of five medals (three silver and two bronze) at the

2007 All-Africa Games The 9th All-Africa Games (; ), also known as Algiers 2007 (), took place from 11 to 23 July 2007 in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. Algiers became the first city to hold All-Africa Games for a second time. The 1978 All-Africa Games were a ...

Algiers, Algeria Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Stat ...

. Pengelly also set two South African records in the freestyle relays at the 2008 FINA World Short Course Championships in

Manchester, England Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, and at the

2011 Summer Universiade The 2011 Summer Universiade ( zh, c=2011年夏季世界大学生运动会, labels=no), also known as the XXVI Summer Universiade ( zh, c=, s=第二十六届夏季世界大学生运动会, labels=no) and Shenzhen 2011, was hosted in Shenzhen, Gua ...

Shenzhen, China Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

. Pengelly competed as South Africa's youngest swimmer (aged 17) in a medley double at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. She took the women's 400 m individual medley title in 4:41.35 and eventually fired off a 2:15.22 to crush the national record in the 200 m individual medley at the South African Championships four months earlier in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

to assure her a place on the Olympic team, both dipping beneath the FINA Olympic qualifying cut. On the first night of the Games, Pengelly held off the fast-charging French swimmer Joanne Andraca to save the seventh spot and twenty-first overall by 2.84 seconds in heat five of the 400 m individual medley, finishing with a time of 4:41.04. Two days later, in the 200 m individual medley, Pengelly scored a time of 2:15.80 to touch out the daunting Dutch swimmer

Femke Heemskerk Frederike Johanna Maria "Femke" Heemskerk (; born 21 September 1987) is a former Dutch competitive Swimming (sport), swimmerPerth, Western Australia Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

in 2010, after completing high school, where she trains for the West Coast Swimming Club. After major shoulder surgery and sitting out for the majority of 2013 Pengelly made a comeback and returned to the swimming pool. She will compete for Australia at the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

, in Glasgow.Dale Miller (13 April 2014)
"Jessica set for green and gold"
– ''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...

''. Retrieved 22 July 2014. Making her debut for Australia, Pengelly qualified for the final in the 400 individual medley event.

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* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pengelly, Jessica 1991 births Living people People from Edenvale, Gauteng South African female swimmers Olympic swimmers for South Africa Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Australian female freestyle swimmers Female medley swimmers Sportswomen from Western Australia South African emigrants to Australia Commonwealth Games swimmers for Australia Swimmers at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Swimmers from Perth, Western Australia African Games silver medalists for South Africa African Games bronze medalists for South Africa Swimmers at the 2007 All-Africa Games Swimmers from Gauteng 21st-century South African sportswomen 21st-century Australian sportswomen African Games bronze medalists in swimming African Games silver medalists in swimming