Stephanie Millward

Stephanie Millward (born 20 September 1981) is a British former Paralympic swimmer.

At the age of 17 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). As a result, she competed in the S9 (classification) Paralympic classification. Since 12 June 2016, she competes in the S8 classification after her category change from the less impaired S9 category down to S8. She was reclassified at the Berlin Open.

Personal life Millward was born on 20 September 1981 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

She was awarded the Freedom of the Town of Corsham on 2 March 2013.

Millward is ambassador of Wiltshire and Bath Air Ambulance Charity.

Education Millward attended The Corsham School, Wiltshire.

Swimming Millward was close to a place in the British international non-disabled team and, having broken the British record for the 100-metre backstroke at the age of 15, hoped to qualify for the 2000 Summer Olympics before she was diagnosed with MS.

She qualified for the 2008 Summer Paralympics held in Beijing, China where she entered four S9 events. She finished fourth in the 100-metre backstroke, fifth in the 100-metre freestyle, sixth in the 50-metre freestyle and thirteenth in the 100-metre butterfly.

At the 2010 IPC Swimming World Championships held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, she won silver medals in the 100 m freestyle, the 400 m freestyle, the 100 m backstroke, the 4×100 m freestyle relay (34pts) and the 4×100 m medley relay (34pts). She also won a bronze medal in the 100 m butterfly.

At the 2011 IPC European Championships in Berlin, Germany, Millward won three gold and two silver medals, including setting a world record time of four minutes, 52.40 seconds on the way to winning gold in the 4×100 m medley relay (34pts) alongside Heather Frederiksen, Claire Cashmore and Louise Watkin.

Millward was named as part of a 44-swimmer squad to compete for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, United Kingdom. At the Games she won her first Paralympic medal, a silver, in the 100 m backstroke S9. Her fifth and final medal came in the 100-metre medley relay (34 pts) swimming with Frederiksen, Cashmore and Watkin. The British quartet were in fourth place heading into the final leg but Watkin came through to finish in second place, three hundredths of a second behind the winning team from Australia.

At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Millward won her first Paralympic gold medals, in the 100m backstroke S8 and the women's medley relay 34pts. At the same Games, she won silver in the 200m individual medley SM8 and bronze in the 400m freestyle S8 and 100m freestyle S8.

Honours Millward was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to swimming. In August 2021, she was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Wiltshire.