Ben Austin

Benjamin James Austin, (born 7 November 1980) is an Australian Elite Athlete with a Disability (EAD) swimmer. His classification is S8 (above elbow amputee).

Early life Austin was born on 7 November 1980 in the New South Wales town of Wellington. He is Aboriginal via his maternal grandmother. When he was a few weeks old, doctors amputated his left arm above the elbow due to birth-related complications. Outside of swimming, he plays rugby league, rugby union, water polo

Swimming

Austin started swimming at five years of age, He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. At the 2004 Games, he won two gold medals in the 100 m freestyle and 4×100 m medley events, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia, He set two world records at the 2004 Paralympic Games in the 100 m freestyle and 100 m butterfly events. At the 2008 Games, he won a gold medal in the Men's 4x100 m Medley 34 pts relay and a silver medal in the 4x100 m freestyle relay. He finished in fifth place in the 100 m butterfly event, and fourth in the 100 m freestyle event.

He competed at the IPC Swimming World Championships in 2002 and 2006. At the 2008 Australian Championships, he set a personal best time in the 100 m Freestyle event with a time of 0:59.08.

Austin became a pioneer of Australian swimming and he did this by bridging the gap of respect, recognition and equality to the Paralympic swimming movement in Australia, through his inspiring achievements and growing public profile.

Ben became the first Paralympic Telstra Dolphins Ambassador and also the first Paralympic ambassador for Austswim.

2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games Austin set two world records at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Heats Finals50 m EAD freestyle 27.48 (WR) - 1st 100 m EAD freestyle 1:00.27 (WR) - 1st50 m EAD freestyle 27.59 - 1st 100 m EAD freestyle 1:00.21 (WR) - 1st

2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games Austin set six world records at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Heats Finals50 m EAD freestyle 27.78 - 3rd 100 m EAD freestyle 1:00.21 - 2nd50 m EAD freestyle 28.03 - 6th 100 m EAD freestyle 1:00.50 - 4th