Dianne Barr (born 13 September 1972) is a

Northern Irish The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...

Paralympic swimmer from

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

. Barr started swimming at the age of four, and has a congenital abnormality of the lower leg. At the age of eleven, her lower leg was

amputated Amputation is the removal of a limb or other body part by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is ...

and replaced with a

prosthetic limb In medicine, a prosthesis (: prostheses; from ), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth (congenital disorder). Prosthe ...

. Barr represented Team GB & NI at the 1988 Summer Paralympic Games in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, at the age of 16, winning

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

in the 100m

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

A4, the 4 × 100m medley relay and the 4 × 100m freestyle

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switc ...

with her teammates Joanne Rout, Thelma Young and Linda Walters. She also won

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

in the 100m freestyle A4 and the 400m freestyle A4. At the 1992 Summer Paralympic Games, Barr won bronze in the 100m backstroke

S10 S10 may refer to: Automobiles * Chevrolet S-10, a pickup truck * Nissan Silvia (S10), a sports car * Toyota Crown (S10), a luxury car Aviation * Lake Chelan Airport, in Chelan County, Washington, United States * Letov Š-10, a Czech trainer a ...

. In 2012,

Trevor Ringland Trevor Maxwell Ringland, (born 13 November 1959) is a Northern Irish solicitor, former rugby union player and unionist politician. From June 2013 to July 2014, he served as co-chairman of the NI Conservatives. After attending Larne Grammar Sch ...

, who like Barr attended

Larne Grammar School Larne Grammar School is a co-educational voluntary grammar school located in Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1886 by Sir Edward Coey and John Crawford, it has around 760 Student, pupils and 50 teaching staff. History The sch ...

, called for more recognition for Barr's impressive achievements.http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/call-to-honour-ulster-s-first-paralympic-hero-1-4200749 Newspaper report on Trevor Ringland's call for more recognition for the success of Dianne Barr

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barr, Dianne 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Larne Paralympic swimmers for Great Britain Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain People educated at Larne Grammar School Medalists at the 1988 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in swimming British female freestyle swimmers British female backstroke swimmers S10-classified para swimmers Irish female backstroke swimmers Irish female freestyle swimmers Female swimmers from Northern Ireland 20th-century sportswomen from Northern Ireland