Ashleigh McConnell OAM (swimming) claimed her first major international individual medal at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, taking bronze in the 100m backstroke S9 event. Ashleigh was part of the gold medal winning women’s 4x100m freestyle 34 points relay team at the Rio 2016 Paralympics. She added silver to her career medal haul in the same event at the Tokyo Paralympics. Ashleigh, who is trained by two-time Olympian and Commonwealth Games representative Kenrick Monk at Melbourne Vicentre, started swimming aged four. She identifies fellow S9 swimmer and Commonwealth Games medallist Matt Cowdrey OAM as her swimming hero. One of her favourite quotes is from Dr Seuss: “You have to be odd to be number one”.