Kenneth Cairns

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(born 20 December 1957) is a British swimmer who won five Paralympic gold medals across five Games, along with several world titles. He broke several records in swimming events, and was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2001 New Year Honours The 2001 New Year Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British honours system, where New Year's Day, 1 January, is marked in several Commonwealth countries by appointing new members of orders of chivalry and recipient ...

for services to disabled sports. Cairns was inducted into the

Scottish Sports Hall of Fame The Scottish Sports Hall of Fame is the national sports hall of fame of Scotland, set up in 2002. It is a joint project organised by sportscotland, the national governmental body for Scottish sport, and National Museums Scotland. It is also funded ...

in 2015, and into the

Scottish Swimming Hall of Fame The Scottish Swimming Hall of Fame, launched in 2010 by Scottish Swimming, is an accolade (and virtual platform) to recognize and celebrate the lifetime achievements of memorable Scottish athletes in all fields of aquatic sports. It is an event t ...

in 2018.

Biography

At the age of 16 Cairns was involved in a motorcycle accident which resulted in damage to his spine and left him confined to a wheelchair. He began swimming to improve his fitness in 1976 and, at the National Stoke Mandeville Games the following year, won all of the swimming events that he entered. Before dedicating his time fully to swimming he chose to go to college and finish his education. He returned to the pool in 1982 and began competed in class S3 events up until he retired due to ill health just before 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 wa ...

in Beijing. When not swimming Cairns is a keen harmonica player who regularly competes in the annual National Championships in Bristol. In 2009 he won in the jazz section. Cairns made his Paralympic Games debut in 1984, winning four gold medals, one individual silver, and a team silver in the relay. While this would prove to be his greatest Paralympic performance he was able to win at least one medal in every Paralympic Games from 1992 to 2004, finding particular success in the freestyle events. Between 1990 and 2006 Cairns won 16 medals in World Championship competitions, including 7 golds, and 21 medals in European Championships until 2001. He swam relay events with Mike Kenny and

Sascha Kindred Sascha Kindred, (born 13 December 1977 in Münster, Germany) is a British swimmer who has competed in six Summer Paralympic Games, winning thirteen medals. Early life Born in Germany, Kindred moved to Britain at the age of 3. He began swimming ...

amongst others. Now retired, Cairns continues to support swimming galas around the country that are organised by Scottish Disability Sport. At one such event Cairns met and inspired Andrew Mullen who went on to find World Championship and Paralympic swimming success.

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