Matt Cowdrey

Matthew John Cowdrey (born 22 December 1988) is an Australian politician and Paralympic swimmer. He presently holds numerous world records. He has a congenital amputation of his left arm; it stops just below the elbow. Cowdrey competed at the 2004 Paralympic Games, 2006 Commonwealth Games, 2008 Paralympic Games, 2010 Commonwealth Games, and the 2012 Paralympic Games. After the 2012 London Games, he is the most successful Australian Paralympian, having won thirteen Paralympic gold medals and twenty three Paralympic medals in total. On 10 February 2015, Cowdrey announced his retirement from swimming.

Cowdrey contested and won the seat of Colton at the 2018 state election in South Australia for the Liberal Party.

Cowdrey was born on 22 December 1988 with part of his arm missing due to a congenital amputation. He attended Endeavour College and played basketball when he was younger. He moved to Canberra and started swimming for the Australian Institute of Sport, while continuing to represent the Norwood Swimming Club of Adelaide on the club level. In 2011, he also represented Kawana Waters Swimming Club. As of 2013^[update], he swims for the Marion Swimming Club.

In April 2015, Cowdrey graduated from the University of Adelaide with a double degree in law and media. In 2013, he undertook a three-month internship with U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. In 2015, at the time of his retirement, he was working for KPMG in Adelaide.

Cowdrey competes in the International Paralympic Committee's S9 (freestyle, backstroke and butterfly,) SB8 (breaststroke), and SM9 (individual medley) classifications, which comprise swimmers with a severe leg weakness, swimmers with slight coordination problems and swimmers with one limb loss. Cowdrey started swimming when he was five years old, and doing so competitively soon after in 1994. He broke his first Australian open record when he was eleven years old, and set his first world record at the age of thirteen.

Cowdrey was one of the youngest Australian competitors at the 2004 Paralympics. At the 2004 Games, he won three gold medals in the men's 4×100-metre medley relay, the 100-metre freestyle S9, and the 200-metre individual medley SM9, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia. Cowdrew also won silver medals in the 100-metre butterfly S9 and the 4×100-metre freestyle relay, and bronze medals in the 50-metre freestyle S9 and the 400-metre freestyle S9.

At the 2005 Australian Open, Cowdrey set two world records en route to winning seven gold medals and two bronze medals.

At the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games Trials, Cowdrey set world records and won gold medals in four events: the 200-metre individual medley mixed disability classification, the 100-metre backstroke mixed disability classification, the 50-metre backstroke mixed disability classification, and the 50-metre butterfly mixed disability classification. Additionally, he won gold medals in two other events: the 100-metre freestyle mixed disability classification and the 50-metre freestyle mixed disability classification. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games Trials – Team Qualification Races, he won a gold medal and set a world record in the 100-metre freestyle Elite Athlete with a Disability (EAD) event, and won a gold medal in the 50-metre freestyle (EAD) event.