Louise Stephanie Watkin (née Niklasson; born 13 August 1992 in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) is a British

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

swimmer. Watkin swims in the S9 category and represented Great Britain in the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

, in which she won two silver and two bronze medals. She won one silver and three bronze medals at the

2008 Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China, from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was ...

in Beijing.

Career history

She came to the UK in 1996. She was born with Upper Limb Deficiency, and is missing her left hand. After trying out several sports and activities as a child, she settled on swimming at the age of 12. Her first major competition was the World Championships in Durban, South Africa in 2006, and since then she has competed in the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008, the European Championships in Reykjavik in 2009, and also the World Short Course Championships in Rio (also in 2009). At the Beijing Paralympics, despite being only just 16, she won 1 silver and 3 bronze medals. As of August 2012, Watkin is ranked no 1 in the world in 50m freestyle. She is also ranked 3rd in the 100m freestyle, 2nd in the 200m IM, 8th in the 100m breastroke, and 10th in the 100m backstroke, Between 15 and 21 August 2010, she competed in the World Championships, in Eindhoven, Netherlands, where she became world champion in 50m freestyle, beating world record holder

Natalie Du Toit Natalie du Toit OIG MBE (; born 29 January 1984) is a South African swimmer. She is best known for the gold medals she won at the 2004 Paralympic Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. She was one of two Paralympians to compete at the 2008 S ...

. She also won a silver medal in the 200m IM, 100m breaststroke, and the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay (34pts). Watkin also won a bronze medal in the 100m freestyle. She is the European record holder for 100m freestyle (1 min 03.07 secs) and 200 I.M. (2 min 35.99 secs) She used to train at the City of Salford Swimming Club full-time under the Salford Competitive Training Scheme, and was coached by John Stout, who was selected as the coach for Paralympics GB Swimming Team at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. However, Louise Watkin (and fellow medallist Heather Frederiksen) are looking for a new club after quitting City of Salford swim team after, according to BBC Sport, a breakdown in the relationship with coach John Stout. In her first event, she won a bronze medal as a member of the Women's 4 x 100 metre freestyle relay 34pts team. She then won silver in the 50m freestyle S9 and bronze in the 200m individual medley SM9 events, before getting a silver medal in the Women's 4 x 100 metre medley relay 34pts.

References

External links

Profile at English Federation of Disabled sport

Profile at ParalympicsGB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watkin, Louise 1992 births Living people Congenital amputees Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic swimmers for Great Britain British amputees Swedish amputees Swimmers from Stockholm Swedish emigrants to the United Kingdom Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics S9-classified para swimmers Medalists at the World Para Swimming Championships Medalists at the World Para Swimming European Championships Paralympic medalists in swimming British female freestyle swimmers British female medley swimmers 21st-century British sportswomen