Ben Popham (born 4 September 2000) is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the

2019 World Para Swimming Championships The 2019 World Para Swimming Championships was the tenth edition of the World Para Swimming Championships run by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The championships were held from February to June in seven countries across five contine ...

, winning a silver and two bronze medals, and the

2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the Inte ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, 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. In 2011 he was chosen to be one of the

Channel Seven Perth Telethon The Channel Seven Perth Telethon, regionally known simply as Telethon, is an annual telethon established in 1968 by philanthropist James Cruthers, Sir James Cruthers and Brian Treasure, and produced by TVW, a Seven Network-owned television statio ...

's "Little Telethon Stars". In 2019, he commenced a Bachelor of Commerce at

Curtin University Curtin University (previously Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology) is an Australian public university, public research university based in Bentley, Western Australia, Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. ...

Swimming career

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

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

. 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. At the

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, 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. At the

2020 Tokyo Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the Inte ...

, Popham won a gold medal in the Men's 100m freestyle S8 with a time of 57.37 Together with

Rowan Crothers Rowan Crothers (born 24 October 1997) is an Australian freestyle swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and 2024 Paris Paralympics. He won two gold and one silver medals at the Tokyo Paralympic ...

, 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. In the Men's 4x100m Medley 34 pts, he swam together with

Timothy Disken Timothy Malcolm Disken, (born 3 November 1996) is an Australian paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships and won bronze in the men's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, he ...

Timothy Hodge Timothy Hodge (born 31 January 2001) is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He has represented Australia at the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Summer Paralympics, where he won two gold, three silver and one bronze medals. Personal Hodge was born on 3 ...

, and William Martin. His team won the silver medal in a time of 4:07.70, just over a second behind the winners,

RPC RPC may refer to: Science and technology * Rational polynomial coefficient * Reactive Plastic Curtain, a carbon-dioxide-absorbing device used in some rebreather breathing sets * Regional Playback Control, a regional lockout technology for DVDs ...

, who set a new world record. 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

*2018 – 'AIS Discovery of the Year' at Swimming Australia Awards. *2019 –

Sportsman of the Year *2019 – Western Australian Swimming Multi-Class Swimmer of the Year *2021 –Western Australian Swimming Awards - Sir

Frank Beaurepaire Sir Francis Joseph Edmund Beaurepaire (13 May 1891 – 29 May 1956) was an Australian distance freestyle swimmer from the 1900s to the 1920s, who won three silver and three bronze medals, from the 1908 Summer Olympics in London to the ...

Memorial Trophy, Elizabeth Edmondson Medallist and Hancock Prospecting Patron's Trophy for Male Swimming *2021 - Swimming Australia Awards Swimmers' Swimmer with Grant Patterson *2022 – Medal of the Order of Australia for service to sport as a gold medallist at the Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020

References

External links

Ben Popham
at

Swimming Australia Swimming Australia is the peak governing body for competitive swimming in Australia. The body has approximately 100,000 registered members nationally in 1100 clubs across the country, which includes swimmers, coaches, officials, administrators ...

(archived) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Popham, Ben 2000 births Living people Cerebral palsy-category Paralympic competitors Swimmers at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for Australia Paralympic silver medalists for Australia Paralympic medalists in swimming Swimmers with cerebral palsy Male Paralympic swimmers for Australia S8-classified para swimmers Medalists at the World Para Swimming Championships Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Australian male freestyle swimmers Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian sportsmen