Mandy Drennan

At just 20 years old, Mandy Drennan already has a trail of medals behind her and is looking to add to her encouraging swimming career in Beijing. With gold in the 4×100m medley relay and silver in the 4×100m freestyle relay at the 2002 IPC Swimming World Championships as well as a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke at the 2002 Canadian National Championships, she is well on the way.

Mandy is looking to prove herself a formidable and medal winning swimmer at Beijing, building on her bronze medal in the 100m freestyle at Athens in 2004. In 2005, she won gold in the 100m freestyle and bronze in the 100m butterfly at the British National Championships and was also awarded the Bass Coast Sportsperson of the Year.

Mandy grew up on Victoria’s Phillip Island and developed a taste for swimming at a young age. Due to Phillip Island’s lack of facilities, Mandy’s parents drove to Melbourne several times a week to allow their daughter to train in a professional pool. She later won a scholarship at one of Melbourne’s elite swimming schools where she was able to make the most of her talents.

An above knee amputee, Mandy says that her disability has made for some amusing moments. She believes the funniest thing to ever have happened to her was when she was dancing in a rock eisteddfod and her leg fell off. As well as dancing, Mandy is an advanced open water scuba diver and also enjoys surfing and kneeboarding.