Maddison ‘Maddie’ Elliott OAM is a Paralympic swimmer who was awarded a Scholarship within the 2014 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program, she was paired with Layne Beachley AO as her Mentor.

Maddie was born in Newcastle, NSW, in 1998 and competes in the S8/S9 classifications after developing cerebral palsy as a result of a neonatal stroke. She began swimming at six months old and started competing in 2009. Maddie also holds six Australian age group records in Athletics.

Maddie made Australian sport history when she became the youngest athlete to win a gold medal (women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay) at the age of 13 at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. For this reason, she was awarded an Order of Australian Medal for Services to Sport in 2014.

Following her burst on to the scene in 2012, Maddie went on to become well known in the para swimming world. With multiple world records and gold medals, Maddie’s most outstanding year was 2016 at the Rio Paralympic Games, where she won 3 gold and 2 silver medals which placed her as one of the top five female athletes of the event.

Accolades came flooding in. She has been named Australian Paralympic Junior Athlete of the Year, Paralympic Swimmer of the Year and NSW Regional Athlete of the Year. She also collected the title of NSW Athlete of the Year with a Disability and Paralympic Swimmer of the Year for a second time in 2016, when she also won Australian Paralympic Female Athlete of the Year.

Honours & Achievements

• 2012: Australian Paralympic Junior Athlete of the Year.
• 2014: Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
• 2014: Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship Holder.
• 2015: Paralympic Swimmer of the Year at the Swimming Australia awards.
• 2015: NSWIS Regional Athlete of the Year.
• 2015: NSW Athlete of the Year with a Disability.
• 2016: Paralympic Swimmer of the Year at the Swimming Australia awards.
• 2016: Australian Paralympic Female Athlete of the Year.
• 2016: NSWIS Female Athlete of the Year, NSWIS Regional Athlete of the Year, NSWIS Junior Athlete of the Year.