Andrew Mullen (born 29 November 1996) is a British

Paralympian The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

swimmer. Mullen competes in the S5 disability category in freestyle, backstroke and butterfly, specialising in sprint events. He competed in the

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

and won a silver and two bronze medals in 2016.Andrew Mullen
. rio2016.com Earlier in 2013 he won silver and bronze at the

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 ...

in Montreal.

Personal history

Mullen was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland in 1996. He was born with a shortened left leg. He was educated at Mearns Castle High School.

Swimming career

Mullen began swimming from a young age, and at the age of seven he became a member of Temple Swimming club. While at Temple he entered meets organized by Scottish Disability Sport, showing promise as a competitive swimmer. At the age of 10, after attending a gala in Dundee, he was approached by Paralympic champion swimmer Kenny Cairns, who believed Mullen had the potential to challenge at the highest level of the sport. Mullen took great inspiration from the meeting, giving him the belief to become a world champion. Mullen increased his training hours after being accepted by local club REN 96. At the age of 12 he was accepted into the Scottish Junior Squad, travelling to Sheffield for further training sessions. In 2010 Mullen recorded times that saw him accepted into the British Swimming World Class Talent Programme. This led to him entering his first international swimming competition when he was part of the British team to compete at the 2011 IPC Swimming European Championships in Berlin. He entered three events, all in the S5 category, the 100m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 200m individual medley. He took two medals at the games, silver in the butterfly and bronze in the individual medley. In 2012 at the age of 15, he qualified for the Great Britain team for the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

in London. At the 2012 Paralympics, Mullen was entered for the 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 50m individual medley. In his first event, the 50m freestyle he progressed through the heats, taking the final slot as the eighth fastest qualifier. In the final he finished eighth. His second event the 50m backstroke he again qualified through the heats, this time finishing in second place, and recording the fourth fastest time. The finals saw Mullen finishing fourth, just over half a second behind bronze medalist Zsolt Vereczkei of Hungary. Mullen's final event, the 50m butterfly, he again qualified through his heats only to again finish just outside the medals in fourth position. Mullen was back in the British team the next year when he travelled to Montreal to compete in the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships. There he was entered into five events in the S5 category: the 50m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke, 200m Individual Medley, 100m Freestyle and 50m Freestyle. He finished 5th in the 50m freestyle and 4th in the 100m freestyle, but medaled in the other three events. He took silver in the 200m individual medley and 50m backstroke, beaten to first place on both occasions by Brazil's

Daniel Dias Daniel de Faria Dias (born 24 May 1988) is a Brazilian Paralympic swimmer. Having learnt to swim in 2004 after being inspired by Clodoaldo Silva at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, he entered his first international competition two years later winn ...

. In the 50m butterfly he won bronze, again behind Dias (silver) and Roy Perkins (gold).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mullen, Andrew 1996 births Living people Swimmers from Glasgow British male butterfly swimmers Scottish male freestyle swimmers British male freestyle swimmers S5-classified para swimmers Paralympic swimmers for Great Britain Paralympic medalists in swimming Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the World Para Swimming Championships Medalists at the World Para Swimming European Championships Scottish male backstroke swimmers Scottish male butterfly swimmers Scottish male medley swimmers British male medley swimmers People from Newton Mearns Sportspeople from East Renfrewshire 21st-century Scottish sportsmen