Minna Atherton (born 17 May 2000) is an Australian competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who won the gold medals in the 100- and 200-metre backstroke events at the 2015 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Singapore. She tied the

junior world record Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr ...

(held by American Claire Adams) in the 100-metre backstroke and broke the Championships record in the 200-metre backstroke. In December 2015 at the Queensland State Swimming Championships in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, she broke the junior world record in the 100-metre backstroke with a time of 59.37. Two months later, in February 2016, she twice broke the junior world record in the 50-metre backstroke at the Brisbane Sprint Championships. In the heats she swam 27.73, followed by 27.49 in the final. In April 2016, Atherton did not qualify for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. Her best result at the Australian trials was a third-place finish in the 100-meter backstroke behind

Emily Seebohm Emily Jane Seebohm, Order of Australia, OAM (born 5 June 1992) is a retired Australian Swimming (sport), swimmer and television personality. She has appeared at four Olympic Games between Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 and Swimming ...

, who trains at the same club as Atherton, and Madison Wilson. Seebohm and Wilson were the gold and silver medalists in this event at the

2015 World Aquatics Championships The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia hosted this event for the first time. The number of participating national teams (190), ...

. In 2018 she took part in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and took part in the 50M Backstroke event, but did not reach the final.

International Swimming League

Atherton is a member of the London Roar team, competing in the

International Swimming League The International Swimming League (ISL) was an annual professional swimming league, established in 2019. It features a team-based competition format with fast-paced race sessions. In 2019, the regular season started in October and the Final Match ...

(ISL). The ISL is an annual professional swimming league featuring a team-based competition format with fast paced race sessions. 12 teams featuring the world’s best swimmers competed for the ISL title in 2021. During the

2019 International Swimming League The 2019 International Swimming League was the inaugural edition of the International Swimming League, a professional swimming league, established in 2019. It comprised eight teams composed of both women and men. The league consisted of seven sho ...

season Atherton was the leading female backstroker in the league, winning ten of the twelve backstroke events she contested for the London Roar. Atherton was also the first person to break a world record while swimming an ISL race when she clocked 54.89 to win a 100 metre backstroke race at

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in October 2019.

World records

Short course metres

References

External links

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Atherton, Minna 2000 births Living people Australian female backstroke swimmers World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming World record holders in swimming Commonwealth Games swimmers for Australia Swimmers at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 2022 Commonwealth Games 21st-century Australian sportswomen Swimmers from Brisbane Sportswomen from Queensland