Monique Murphy (born 9 April 1994) is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the

2016 Rio Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

where she won a silver medal.

Personal

Murphy was born on 9 April 1994 in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. In 2014, Murphy fell 20m from a fifth story balcony which left her in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

. Murphy recalls her injuries when she woke, "I woke up in hospital with a

broken jaw Mandibular fracture, also known as fracture of the jaw, is a break through the mandibular bone. In about 60% of cases the break occurs in two places. It may result in a decreased ability to fully open the mouth. Often the teeth will not feel pr ...

in two places, a cut to my

neck The neck is the part of the body on many vertebrates that connects the head with the torso. The neck supports the weight of the head and protects the nerves that carry sensory and motor information from the brain down to the rest of the body. In ...

close to the main artery and

windpipe The trachea, also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all air-breathing animals with lungs. The trachea extends from the la ...

, a broken left

collarbone The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the right ...

, a tear in my triceps tendon, three broken

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs ( la, costae) are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the chest, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ches ...

s and a

tibial plateau fracture A tibial plateau fracture is a break of the upper part of the tibia (shinbone) that involves the knee joint. Symptoms include pain, swelling, and a decreased ability to move the knee. People are generally unable to walk. Complication may include ...

." Murphy's injuries were too severe for recovery, which led to the

amputation Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indi ...

of her right leg below the knee. In 2016, she is studying a Bachelor of Social Work with honours at

RMIT RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scienc ...

. She also volunteers with St Vincent de Paul with their youth program, and is an ambassador with Share the Dignity. Murphy now resides in Brisbane training alongside paralympians Brendan Hall and Lakeisha Patterson under coach Harley Connolly.

Career

Murphy started

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

at a young age with the

Tuggeranong The District of Tuggeranong () is one of the original eighteen districts of the Australian Capital Territory used in land administration. The district is subdivided into divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks and is the southernmost town cen ...

Vikings Swim Club; swimming as an abled-bodied swimmer. Since the accident in 2014, Murphy was determined to get back in the pool and started training at 2014 at Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club in Melbourne. She now swims under the classification of

S10 S10 may refer to: Automobiles * Chevrolet S-10, a pickup truck * Nissan Silvia (S10), a sports car * Toyota Crown (S10), a luxury car Aviation * Lake Chelan Airport, in Chelan County, Washington, United States * Letov Š-10, a Czech trainer ...

and was picked to travel with 30 other athletes to

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

for the IPC World Championships. Here, she placed 6th and 7th in the Women's 400m

Freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * ICD Freestyle, a paintball marker * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott La ...

(S10) and Women's 100m

Butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

(S10) respectively. At the

, she competed in four events. Murphy qualified for the final in the Women's 400m S10 and won a silver medal. She also competed in the following events but didn't progress to the finals: Women's 50m Freestyle S10, Women's 100m Freestyle S10 and Women's 100m Backstroke S10. Murphy has revolutionized how she trains with a "

prosthetic In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

fin" which she calls her, "mermaid leg." This new leg helps her engage the muscles of her right leg when swimming. Her motto is "If your dreams don't scare you they aren't big enough". She also reflects on her disability and competing at Rio stating "As a kid growing up I always dreamed of going to the Olympics and this has come around in a different way than I had ever expected so, it's a second chance to go after my dream." In 2016, she is a

Victorian Institute of Sport The Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) is the government-funded sporting institute of the Australian state of Victoria. It provides high performance sports programs for talented athletes, enabling them to achieve national and international succe ...

scholarship holder and trains at Melbourne Vicentre. At the end of 2016, she relocated to the Gold Coast training with Southport Olympic with coach Glenn Baker and scholarship holder with the QAS. With the cancellation of the 2017 World Championships due to the earthquake in Mexico City, she finished No.1 on the world rankings for S10 400 freestyle for 2017. At the end of 2017, Monique moved to Brisbane to train with coach Harley Connolly at Lawnton Swim Club. She moved to Burpengary Regional Aquatic Center in 2019 to continue training with Harley Connolly.

Recognition

In October 2018, she was awarded

Swimming Australia Swimming Australia is the peak governing body for competitive swimming in Australia. The body has approximately 100,000 registered members nationally in 1100 clubs across the country, which includes swimmers, coaches, officials, administrators ...

's Optus Community Award for her role in inspiring the next generation of swimmers through participation in swimming clinics, Australia Swims, Optus Junior Dolphins and Olympics Unleashed.

References

External links

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2017-04-04
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Monique 1994 births Australian female backstroke swimmers Australian female butterfly swimmers Australian female freestyle swimmers Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic silver medalists for Australia Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Female Paralympic swimmers for Australia Living people S10-classified para swimmers Paralympic medalists in swimming 21st-century Australian women 21st-century Australian people Swimmers from Wellington City