Pauline English

Pauline Jean English is an Australian paraplegic swimmer, who won five medals at two Paralympics. She later became the first person with a disability to swim across Sydney Harbour.

English has been paralysed from the waist down since the age of three due to transverse myelitis. In December 1971, shortly after she had finished school at the age of 14, her father encouraged her to take up competitive swimming. He enrolled her at Don Talbot's swimming pool in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. At that pool, one of Talbot's assistants, Trevor Ellis, taught her how to balance herself and gain power by making her swim against a rubber hose that was tied to both her ankles at the edge of the pool.

Athletes were required to raise $2000.00 to cover their expenses to attend the Games. Many contributors including the Sunday Mirror, the south coast town of Nowra where English was the guest of honour at the fete, Riverwood and Arncliffe Returned Services League of Australia sub-branches, in total raised $4,460.00, donated to the team as a whole. Children and teachers from Peakhurst South Primary School raised $175.00 from a coin chain across the school playground to further assist English, who then lived in Peakhurst, to compete at the Games. The Mayoress of Hurstville City Council, Mrs K J Ryan also launched an appeal to cover expenses and the Mayor, Alderman K J Ryan MLA, presented the cheque to English.

At the 1972 Games, she won three bronze medals in the Women's 3x25 m Medley 4, Women's 50 m Freestyle 4, and Women's 3x50 m Medley Relay 2–4 events. She won two gold medals in freestyle and individual medley and two silver medals in the backstroke and the relay at the 1974 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Dunedin, New Zealand. and, at 19 years of age she won the Stewart-Toyota Leader Sportstar award.

In preparation for the 1976 Toronto Paralympics, English trained with her coach Janice Murphy for the five weeks prior to the Games, at Lakehead University Pool, Thunder Bay, Canada. She home-stayed with the family of Bill Koivisto, who was the organiser of sports for locally disabled people. Bill Guy, sports editor of The Chronicle-Journal, said that the many friends made during her stay would be "pulling for the plucky girl from down under to do well at Toronto". to raise funds for an indoor stadium at Mount Druitt, for both disabled and able-bodied athletes, the construction of which was to begin late in 1979.

Accompanied by long-distance swimmer Des Renford, and escorted by four volunteer professional divers from Sea Life and Dive Company, English quickly outpaced them. She was the first disabled person to swim across Sydney Harbour.