32 ACPS Atlanta 1996 Swimming Kingsley Bugarin

Kingsley Haldane Bugarin, OAM (born 3 August 1968) is an Australian Paralympic and vision impaired

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

. He competed in five consecutive

Summer Paralympics The Summer Paralympics also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral ...

from 1984 to 2000, winning a total of five gold, eight silver, and six bronze medals. He held the Australian record for the highest Paralympic medal count until it was surpassed in 2012 by

Matthew Cowdrey Matthew John Cowdrey (born 22 December 1988) is an Australian politician and Paralympic swimmer. He presently holds numerous world records. He has a congenital amputation of his left arm; it stops just below the elbow. Cowdrey competed at the 2 ...

Personal

He was born 3 August 1968 in

Mount Lawley Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. He attended

La Salle College, Perth La Salle College is a Roman Catholic co-educational secondary school in Middle Swan, Western Australia, an eastern suburb of Perth. It caters for approximately 1400 Year 7-12 students, including about 40 Aboriginal boarding students from regiona ...

. Bugarin married Indonesian triathlete Yanti Ardie during the SunSmart IRONMAN at

Busselton, Western Australia Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...

in December 2014. Bugarin works as an information technology consultant.

Swimming

Before his swimming career, Bugarin competed in track and field. At the age of 14, he took up competitive swimming training at Swan Hills Swimming Club in

Midvale, Western Australia Midvale is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, which is split between the City of Swan and the Shire of Mundaring. Its postcode is 6056. Developed in the early 1950s, the area was named as a composite of Midland and the former Helena Vale ...

. As a 16-year-old at the 1984 New York Paralympics, he won two silver medals and a bronze medal. He followed this up with three bronze medals at 1988 Seoul Paralympics. At the 1990 IPC Swimming Championships in Assen, he won one gold, two silver and won bronze medal. This was followed up with three silver medals and one bronze medal at 1992 Barcelona. At the 1994 IPC Swimming Championships in Valenta, he won one gold, two silver and one bronze medals. At the

1996 Atlanta Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internatio ...

, he had his most successful Paralympics winning three gold, two silver and one bronze medals. He won four gold medals at 1999 IPC Swimming World Championships in Madrid. During the late 1990s in the lead up to the Sydney Paralympics Bugarin moved to Claremont Uni Swimming Club to train with Matt Brown at the UWA Aquatic Centre and then called,

Challenge Stadium Perth Superdrome, known as HBF Stadium under a commercial naming rights arrangement, is a sports complex in Perth, Western Australia. It is home to the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS). The venue is located in the suburb of Mount Cl ...

. At his final Paralympics, he won two gold and one silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. At the end of his career, Bugarin's overall international medal tally shows a total of 32 gold medals, 19 silver medals and 13 bronze medals. Over the duration of his career, Bugarin has won a total of 155 medals in competitions ranging from National Championships to Paralympic Games. As of May 2019, Bugarin holds the world record for the 200 m breaststroke in class S12 with a time of 2:34.08 which he set on 19 October 1999 in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. Bugarin is officially retired from high level competition but still trains and competes in

open water swimming Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. The beginning of the modern age of open water human swimming, swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when L ...

and triathlon events. He was an

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

scholarship holder from 1997 to 1999 in swimming.

Achievements

In 1997, he received the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(OAM) in recognition of service to sport as a gold medallist at the Atlanta Paralympic Games 1996. In 2000, he received an

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, offi ...

. In 2008 he was inducted into the Western Australian Swimming Association Hall of Fame. In 2019, he was made a Legend of the Western Australian Swimming Association Hall of Fame. He was the third swimmer to be made a Legend.

References

External links