Caitlin enjoys her best year of the sport
27 Nov 2024
A member of the club since she was 4 years old, Caitlin has been gaining increasing prominence on both the National and International scene, achieving many National Down Syndrome records.
At the Down Syndrome World Championships in Turkey in March, competing as a member of Down Syndrome Swimming GB, Caitlin made finals in all of her events, narrowly missing out on the medals in several of them. She helped propel GB to new world records in the female 4 x 200m and the mixed 4 x 100m freestyle relays.
At the recent British Down Syndrome Swimming Championships in Crawley on 16-17 November, Caitilin was crowned British Champion in the 50m and 100m backstroke and the 100m freestyle, also setting new British records in both the 100m events. She won silver medals in the 50 fly, 100 medley and 200m freestyle.
Swimmers with Down Syndrome presently have to compete in the S14 category for people with intellectual disabilities. Given that people with Down Syndrome are typically of short stature, with short limbs, hypermobility and many have cardiac and other issues, this category is tough and makes qualifying at a Paralympic level impossible.
DSS-GB and others are helping to push the cause of Down Syndrome swimming in the hope that one day they will have a category of their own – as DS swimmers already do in Australia and New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Caitlin continues to push on with her training, citing Michael Phelps, plus current GB butterfly swimmer Jacob Peters as her inspiration. Caitlin swims with one of the senior competitive squads in the club which she loves – explaining recently that her club is the “best ever”!
She is looking forward to competing alongside the Club’s other top swimmers at the Swim England National Winter Meet in Sheffield in early December.
Watch our interview with Caitlin: