Stephanie Slater

Stephanie Slater (born 7 February 1991) is a British Paralympic swimmer competing in S8 classification events. Slater began her sporting career as an able bodied athlete, but after suffering nerve damage to her left arm she switched to parasport.

Early career Slater was born in 1991 in Preston, England and began swimming from the age of three.

While training at Team GB's Intensive Training Centre in Swansea, she experienced severe weakness and intense pain to her left arm while swimming.

World Championships Slater returned home to Preston to her family after her condition had been diagnosed, and having been a games maker at the London 2012 Paralympics in the Aquatics Centre, this inspired her to return to the pool as a para-swimmer. Not only did she take the gold medal with this record time, but she also qualified for her first World Championships in Montreal.

At the IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal 2013, Slater competed in the Women's 200m IM SM8, Women's 100m Breastroke SB8, Women's 100m Butterfly S8 and the Women's 34pt 4 × 100 m Medley Relay. Women's 200m IM SM8 – Silver – 2.40.73 – European record Women's 100m Breaststroke SB8 – 5th – 1.26.34 Women's 100m Butterfly S8 – Silver – 1.10.12 – European record Women's 34pt 4 × 100 m Medley Relay (Butterfly Leg) – Gold – 4.46.21 – world record

Commonwealth Games 2014 On 22 May 2014 Slater was named as part of the England team which will compete at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland. She will be entering the S8 100m Freestyle event and was quoted as stating, "I feel very privileged to have been selected to represent England in what will be my first Commonwealth Games".

European Championships 2014 After the Commonwealth Games, Slater will be heading to the IPC European Championships, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in August. She secured five European Championship selection times. and silver in the women's S8 100m Butterfly.

Retirement In February 2018, Slater announced her retirement, due to the degeneration of her medical conditions. She wrote, "I have thought long and hard and explored all options with my medical and support teams about this hard decision but at the end of the day I have to think about my health and well-being long-term. It came down to the fact that just one wrong dive or turn could cause a life-changing injury. It is heartbreaking for me because I felt potentially I had more to give. I have sadly been battling for the last 3 years with a decline in my health and this must be my number one priority now."

Following Stephanie's retirement she studied for a BSc (Hons) Child Nursing degree at Liverpool John Moores University, completing this with a first-class honours degree.