Rhiannon Oliver

All good things come in small packages, and Rhiannon Oliver is one of them. Describing herself as small and cute, Rhiannon is short statured and believes being unable to reach food on supermarket shelves as one of her greatest problems. She is also a professional swimmer and in 2007 broke two Australian records for the 50m and 100m butterfly at the Arafura Games.

Ambition and determination drive Rhiannon as she works towards making the team at the Beijing Paralympics. Her goal is to be the best she can be and also help others to be their best. Such a caring nature stems from her mother, who works as a personal trainer. Her father, she jokes, prefers his sport from the couch.

As well as swimming, Rhiannon works closely with youth organisations in her area, organising Youth Week activities and representing her electorate in the Queensland Youth Parliament. She is also quite the drama queen, stealing the show in a speech and drama competition where her entry exceeded the limit by seven minutes as she would just not leave the stage. With such thespian skills, Rhiannon knows nearly every line of Kath and Kim by heart and admits to being somewhat of a Kath and Kim junkie.

Rhiannon believes ‘it’s never too late to be what you might have been’ and is focused on being a champion swimmer, come Beijing.