Paralympics 2024: Rowan Crothers eyes a sub 50 second swim at Paris Games

The man who was told he would never be able to walk, talk or live an independent life is now on the brink of a remarkable breakthrough he hopes to achieve at the Paris Games.

To celebrate 200 days to go until the Paralympics, Paralympic and World Champion swimmer Rowan Crothers held a media conference with Paralympic Australian board member Rebecca Frizelle at Royal Pines. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

When Rowan Crothers was born almost 20 weeks premature in 1997, his parents were painted a bleak picture of his future.

But the man who was told he would never be able to walk, talk or live an independent life, is now a Paralympic swimming champion and stands on the cusp of a breakthrough that was only achieved by an able bodied Australian Olympian a few years before his birth.

Crothers has cerebral palsy, a condition caused by damage to the developing brain that impairs co-ordination and motor skills — in Crothers’ case, particularly through his legs.

“When I was born, when I was young, doctors told me that I would never be independent, I wouldn’t be able to walk and talk,” Crothers said.

“They said I was within the bottom 1 per cent of the population for social skills for communication.”

Crothers did learn to walk and talk but at school, he was bullied by this peers and would hide in the toilets to escape his tormentors.

Rowan Crothers is eyeing a remarkable achievement at the Paralympics. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

The turning point came in 2008 when the then 10-year-old Crothers saw the Beijing Paralympics and decided he wanted to become an elite athlete.

A world record-holder by the time he was 16, Crothers is now a two-time Paralympian and dual gold medallist at the Tokyo Games.

Now, 200 days out from the Paris Paralympics, the young man who was told so often what he couldn’t achieve, is on the cusp of a mark that elite swimmers chase for most of their careers.

Crothers won individual gold in the 50m freestyle in Tokyo but his “baby” remains the 100m, where he wants to become the first para swimmer to break the 50 second barrier for the event.

Andrew Baildon became the first Aussie swimmer to break the mark in 1990, while it wasn’t until 1996 that a sub 50sec swim was needed to make the Olympic final.

The mark remains the standard at which able-bodied sprinters are considered truly elite and Crothers is just a fraction of a second away.

“Currently my personal best is 50.70 seconds. The fastest time any swimmer with a disability has ever gone in history is 50.63 - and I want to go 49,” said Crothers, who trains under Kate Sparkes at Yeronga Park in an elite inclusive program that includes Olympian Chelsea Gubecka and Paralympian Katja Dedekind.

To celebrate 200 days to go until the Paralympics, Rowan Crothers held a media conference with Paralympic Australian board member Rebecca Frizelle at Royal Pines. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

“It would mean so much to break that 50 second barrier, not just to myself but why I really want to do it is because I think it would be such an incredible showcase to young kids with a disability around Australia and around the world, of what they can achieve if they set their dreams and they do everything they can to chase them.

“To be able to go from (being told I wouldn’t be able to walk or talk) to being the fastest swimmer in the world or possibly the first one to break the 50-second barrier I think that is an incredible story.

“But it’s also an incredible showcase of being able to show kids that imagine what they can do if they really set their dreams and they do whatever they can to chase them.”

Speaking at an event at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast on Friday at which RACV Resorts announced a three-year partnership with the Paralympics Australia on the eve of 200 days to go to the Games, Crothers said the prospect of becoming the first under 50 seconds showed the evolution of Paralympic sport.

“It’s incredible to see how much faster athletes with disability are getting,” he said.

“But it’s also the level of seriousness and dedication that additional support networks and people are placing around Paralympic sport.

“People with a disability have always wanted to participate and be good at sport and when they’re enabled to do so by facilities and communities around them, we can become so much better and so much faster and make so much greater of a difference.”

Originally published as Paralympics 2024: Rowan Crothers eyes a sub 50 second swim at Paris Games