Fran Williamson

Frances Williamson (born 16 June 1985) is a retired British Paralympic swimmer. Williamson competed in the S3 classification mainly in the freestyle and backstroke preferring shorter distances. She participated in two Summer Paralympic Games winning six medals. At the 2006 IPC World Championships she won three gold medals including the 50m backstroke S3, which she successfully defended four years later at Eindhoven.

Personal history Williamson was born in 1985 in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. She was born with athetoid cerebral palsy, which affects her movement, motor skills and speech. She later returned to education to complete a master's degree in Disability Studies at Leeds University. Williamson also won silver in the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke, and a third place bronze medal in the 100m freestyle.

Two days later on 15 September, Williamson entered her final Paralympic event, the 50m backstroke S3. Although qualifying easily in second place, she finished almost nine seconds behind Yip of Singapore who set a new world record. In the final Williamson recorded a time of 1:06.75 which was enough to secure second place and her fourth career Paralympic silver medal.

After reconstructive surgery in 2008/2009, Williamson entered her final IPC World Championship, held in Eindhoven in 2010. There she successfully defended her 50m backstroke title, taking gold. She followed this with a silver in the 50m freestyle S3 and a bronze in the 4x50 medley freestyle. She followed this with two bronze medals at the European Championships in Berlin, but this was to be her final major international competition but just two months later Williamson announced her retirement from competitive swimming. She cited the quality of the next generation of athletes coming through the system would make a podium finish at the 2012 Paralympics in London difficult.

Fran was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Anglia Ruskin University and an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Sunderland. These added to her First Class Degree in Social Policy from Anglia Ruskin University. As well as a master's degree in Disability Studies from the University of Leeds.

Fran is now the founder and owner of The Happy Journals Group - a collection of websites centred around personal development, and using & creating journals. The most popular of these being The Happy Journals and She Creates Colour.

In October 2024, Fran and her husband, Chris Whitaker, founded Purple Advantage - a company to help organisations make greater use of disability talent in the workplace and unlock the competitive advantages this brings.