Monica Vaughan
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 15 April 1952 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  United Kingdom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Paralympic swimming, volleyball | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Monica Vaughan (15 April 1952) is a retired British athlete and multiple gold medal-winning paralympic swimmer. She was Britain's most successful Paralympian at the 1976 Games in Toronto, winning five gold medals in swimming and a silver medal as the only woman in the British volleyball team.[3][4] She returned for the 1980 Games in Arhnem, winning a further four gold medals and a silver.[2]
Early life
Vaughan grew up in Cosham, Hampshire. She had a leg amputated at the age of four, after she fell under a trolleybus. At primary school, she had swimming lessons every summer, but never learned to swim. The lessons started with the breaststroke, which was difficult to swim as a mid-thigh amputee. A science teacher at secondary school taught her the front crawl and within weeks she was able to swim.
Vaughan joined the local swimming club, Portsmouth Northsea SC. In 1966, Vaughan was disqualified from a butterfly race, because she didn't move her legs together and simultaneously. Northsea's protests against the lack of inclusion, lead to a meeting with the Amateur Swimming Association and a change of the rules. The news was covered in newspapers as far away as California and Singapore.[5]
Vaughan worked as a podiatrist before retiring.[3]
References
- ^ "IPC Historical Results Archive - Toronto 1976 - Swimming". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- ^ a b "IPC Historical Results Archive - Arnhem 1980 - Swimming". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- ^ a b c "Monica Vaughan". British Paralympic Association. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
- ^ Brittain, I.S. (2012). "From Stoke Mandeville to Stratford: A History of the Summer Paralympic Games" (PDF). p. 128. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 November 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
- ^ "Monica Vaughan". National Paralympic Heritage Trust. Archived from the original on 25 February 2024. Retrieved 10 September 2024.