Jeanette Chippington

Jeanette Clare Chippington (née Esling; born 21 April 1970) is a British Paralympic swimmer and paracanoeist. Chippington has represented Great Britain at seven Paralympics, five in swimming Summer Paralympics, 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. Competing as a S6 classification swimmer she favoured mainly 50 m and 100m freestyle competitions. After retiring from swimming Chippington returned to disability sport, becoming a world class paracanoeist, winning gold at the 2016 Summer Paralympics and bronze at 2020 Summer Paralympics.

Personal history Chippington was born Jeanette Clare Esling in 1970 in Taplow, England. In 1982 she contracted a virus which resulted in damage to her spinal cord which in turn left her paralysed in both legs. She married in 1998, flying from her honeymoon to compete in the IPC Swimming World Championships in New Zealand. Chippington represented Great Britain four years later at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona. There she entered six events, taking a medal in one, a bronze in the women's Women's 4x50 m Medley S1-6, alongside team mates Tara Flood, Margaret McEleny and Jane Stidever.

The 1996 Summer Paralympics were Chippington's most successful with a five medal haul. She won two gold medals, setting world records in both. In the Women's 4 x 100-metre medley relay she was reunited with McEleny and Stidver while new member Jennifer Booth was added to the last leg. The team finished in a time of 2:52.36 setting a new world record and taking gold. Her second gold medal was in the 100m freestyle S6. In the heats Jenny Newstead of New Zealand finished as fastest qualifier in a world record time of 1:23.85, while Chippington qualified third. Despite the strong competition, Chippington won the final by swimming 1:23:63 beating Newstead's short lived record in the process. and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours, also for services to canoeing.

In September 2025, she competed at the 2025 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships and won a gold medal in the KL1 event with a time of 35:03.52. This marked the first time paracanoe was competed in marathon distances at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships.