Monique Murphy

Monique Murphy (born 9 April 1994)[1] is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics where she won a silver medal.[2][3]

Monique Murphy
2016 Australian Paralympic team portrait of Monique Murphy
Personal information
Nationality Australia
Born (1994-04-09) 9 April 1994
Wellington, New Zealand
Sport
CountryAustralia
SportSwimming
DisabilityAmputee
Disability classS10
ClubVicentre
Coached byAlex Hirschauer
Medal record
Women's paralympic swimming
Representing  Australia
Summer Paralympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio de Janeiro400 m Freestyle S10

Personal

Murphy was born on 9 April 1994 in Wellington, New Zealand.[4][5] In 2014, Murphy fell 20m from a fifth story balcony[6] which left her in a coma.[7] Murphy recalls her injuries when she woke, "I woke up in hospital with a broken jaw in two places, a cut to my neck close to the main artery and windpipe, a broken left collarbone, a tear in my triceps tendon, three broken ribs and a tibial plateau fracture."[6] Murphy's injuries were too severe for recovery, which led to the amputation of her right leg below the knee.[6] In 2016, she is studying a Bachelor of Social Work with honours at RMIT. She also volunteers with St Vincent de Paul with their youth program, and is an ambassador with Share the Dignity.[5] Murphy now resides in Brisbane training alongside paralympians Brendan Hall and Lakeisha Patterson under coach Harley Connolly.

Career

Murphy started swimming at a young age with the Tuggeranong Vikings Swim Club; swimming as an abled-bodied swimmer.[8] Since the accident in 2014, Murphy was determined to get back in the pool and started training at 2014 at Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club in Melbourne. She now swims under the classification of S10[1] and was picked to travel with 30 other athletes[9] to Glasgow for the IPC World Championships.[10] Here, she placed 6th and 7th in the Women's 400m Freestyle (S10) and Women's 100m Butterfly (S10) respectively.[1]

At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, she competed in four events. Murphy qualified for the final in the Women's 400m S10 and won a silver medal.[3] She also competed in the following events but didn't progress to the finals: Women's 50m Freestyle S10, Women's 100m Freestyle S10 and Women's 100m Backstroke S10.[3]

Murphy has revolutionized how she trains with a "prosthetic fin" which she calls her, "mermaid leg." This new leg helps her engage the muscles of her right leg when swimming.[6] Her motto is "If your dreams don't scare you they aren't big enough".[11] She also reflects on her disability and competing at Rio stating "As a kid growing up I always dreamed of going to the Olympics and this has come around in a different way than I had ever expected so, it's a second chance to go after my dream."[12]

In 2016, she is a Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder and trains at Melbourne Vicentre.[11] At the end of 2016, she relocated to the Gold Coast training with Southport Olympic with coach Glenn Baker and scholarship holder with the QAS. With the cancellation of the 2017 World Championships due to the earthquake in Mexico City, she finished No.1 on the world rankings for S10 400 freestyle for 2017. At the end of 2017, Monique moved to Brisbane to train with coach Harley Connolly at Lawnton Swim Club. She moved to Burpengary Regional Aquatic Center in 2019 to continue training with Harley Connolly.

Recognition

In October 2018, she was awarded Swimming Australia's Optus Community Award for her role in inspiring the next generation of swimmers through participation in swimming clinics, Australia Swims, Optus Junior Dolphins and Olympics Unleashed.[13]

References
  1. "Biography Overview". IPC. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  2. "Swimming Australia Paralympic Squad Announcement". Swimming Australia News, 13 April 2016. Archived from the original on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  3. "Monique Murphy". Rio Paralympics Official site. Archived from the original on 22 September 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  4. "Monique Murphy". Swimming Australia website. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  5. "Monique Murphy". Australian Paralympic Committee. Archived from the original on 29 March 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  6. Van den Berg, Lucie. "Swimmer Monique Murphy hopes 'mermaid leg' will get her to Rio Paralympics". Herald Sun. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  7. Murphy, Monique. "Keep Monique Standing". Ozcrowd. Archived from the original on 11 May 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  8. "TVSC". Hall of Fame TVSC. TVSC. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  9. "Dolphin's swim team". 2015 Australian Dolphins Swim Team Selection. Swimming Australia. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  10. "World Class team seek Glasgow gold". Australian Paralympic Committee. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  11. "Monique Murphy". Victorian Institute of Sport website. Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  12. Stayner, Guy. "Rio 2016 Paralympics: Monique Murphy's rapid rise puts swimming medals in her sights". News ABC. ABC News. Archived from the original on 29 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  13. "Australian Swimming stars in and out of the water celebrated". Swimming Australia website. Archived from the original on 1 November 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
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