Amanda Fraser (born 10 November 1981 in

Emerald, Queensland Emerald is a rural town and locality in the Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Emerald had a population of 14,906 people. The town is the headquarters for the Central Highlands Regional Council. Geography Emerald lie ...

) is an Australian Paralympic athlete and swimmer. She has

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sens ...

and competes in the F37 category for the physically impaired. Competing in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Summer Paralympics, she won two silver and two bronze medals, and in the 2006

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, she won a gold and a silver medal. In the 2006 championships, she set a world record for discus in her classification, and was named 2006 Telstra Female AWD Athlete of the Year by

Athletics Australia Athletics Australia is the national sporting organisation (NSO) recognised by Sport Australia for the sport of athletics in Australia. First founded in 1897, the organisation is responsible for administering a sport with over 16,000 registered ...

. Fraser now works as a personal trainer, working with people unfamiliar to a gym environment, especially women. She believes it is important for women to feel empowered and she aims to help them develop their mental and physical strength.

Career

211000 - Swimming 200m medley SM7 Amanda Fraser action 2 - 3b - 2000 Sydney event photo

Fraser was born with spastic hemiplegia, a form of

where one side of the body is affected. At the age of 12, she competed in the Queensland School Sports Athletics Championships and won three gold medals. She later moved on to swimming, and was selected to complete in the

2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...

in Sydney, where she won bronze medals in the 4×100 m Freestyle 34-point relay and the S7 50 m Freestyle. In 2001, she returned to athletics, and qualified for the

2004 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 136 , athletes = 3,806 , events = 519 in 19 sports , opening = 17 September , closing = 28 September , opened_by = President Costis Stephanopoulos , cauldron = Georgios Toptsis , stadium = Olympi ...

with a world-record discus throw of 27.95 m at the national championships. At the Paralympics, she competed in the 100 m, shot-put, and discus events, winning a silver medal in the F37 discus classification, Australia's first medal in athletics at the event. She competed in the 2006 International Paralympic Committee

, where she broke the F37 discus world record with a throw of 29.93 metres, winning the gold medal at the event. Following this achievement, she was named the 2006 Telstra Female Athlete with a Disability of the Year by Athletics Australia. At the

2008 Paralympic Games The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was f ...

in Beijing, Fraser was initially awarded the bronze medal for the discus in the combined F37-38 event; however, she was given the silver medal when British athlete Rebecca Chin was disqualified on the basis that she was ineligible to compete in the cerebral palsy category. It was initially reported by

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

that Fraser refused to shake Chin's hand after the event, however this was later corrected by ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'' when it was found that it was not Fraser who refused to shake hands, but British athlete Beverly Jones. She was an Australian Institute of Sport athletics scholarship holder from 2002 to 2008.

References

External links

*
Amanda Fraser
at Australian Athletics Historical Results

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Amanda Female Paralympic swimmers for Australia Paralympic athletes for Australia Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Paralympic silver medalists for Australia Paralympic bronze medalists for Australia Cerebral Palsy category Paralympic competitors Track and field athletes with cerebral palsy Australian Institute of Sport Paralympic track and field athletes Australian female discus throwers Australian female shot putters Australian female sprinters Australian female freestyle swimmers Sportswomen from Queensland 1981 births Living people Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Swimmers with cerebral palsy S7-classified para swimmers Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic medalists in swimming Medalists at the World Para Athletics Championships Australian female medley swimmers People from Emerald, Queensland