Alex Saffy (swimming) won silver in the men’s 100m butterfly S10 behind teammate Col Pearse at his Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham in 2022.  Just a month earlier, the West Australian teenager had made his international debut at the Para Swimming World Championships in Madeira where he claimed bronze in the men’s 100m butterfly S10. Those two medals earned Alex Swimming Western Australia Patron’s Trophy for 2022. He claimed another bronze in the men’s 200m medley SM10 at his second world championships in Manchester in 2023.

Alex was born in South Africa and the family moved to Western Australia in 2013. He was diagnosed with dyskinetic cerebral palsy when he was a child which led to regular disqualifications in able-bodied events as the symptoms progressed. As a result, he was encouraged to pursue para-swimming where he took up butterfly under his first coach Celia Kendall at the Bunbury Swimming Club.

The “Bunbury Bullet” qualified for the Paralympic team in 2021 after unofficially smashing the world record in the men’s 200m butterfly S9 by over five seconds but was unable to go to Tokyo because he hadn’t been internationally classified. However, shortly afterwards he was awarded the prestigious Wally Foreman Foundation Scholarship.