Pauline English

Who is Pauline English?

Pauline Jean English, OAM, is an Australian paraplegic swimmer, who has won five medals at two Paralympics.

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 and the edge of the pool. Four weeks after her first lesson, she broke two Australian records at the New South Wales Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Games and four weeks after that, she won four gold medals and broke four Australian records at the Australian Paraplegic Championships. From then on, she was coached by former Olympic swimmer Janice Murphy.

At the 1972 Heidelberg 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.