Samantha Paxinos

Samantha Paxinos (born 25 February 1988) is a Botswana swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. She became one of the first-ever Botswana swimmers, alongside John Kamyuka, to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the first female to carry the nation's flag in the opening ceremony. At the games she swam in heat three, but fell behind Olivia Aya Nakitanda of Uganda by more than half a second, failing to advance to the semifinals.

Background Paxinos was tutored in swimming under Darrell Morton from the age of 9, attending his School of Swimming. At the time, swimming in the country was undeveloped. In the late 1990s, Morton met with the Botswana National Sports Council to establish a swimming Federation in Botswana. The Botswana Swimming Sports Association was formed, and the Darrell Morton School of Swimming opened in 1999. The school has since grown to over 900 swimmers. She is coached by Allison La Grange.

Paxinos competed in the 2007 All-Africa Games in Algeria, and competed in the Sub-Sahara championships in Malawi and the World Championships in Manchester in 2008. Swimming as the fastest entrant in heat three, Paxinos scorched her way to the top of the field, but fell behind the winner Olivia Aya Nakitanda of Uganda by more than half a second with a second-place time in 29.91. Paxinos failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed seventieth overall out of ninety-two swimmers in the prelims.