Kirralee Hayes (swimming) won bronze in the women’s 50m freestyle S13 at her Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham behind teammate and close friend Katja Dedekind, her first international medal.

Vision-impaired since birth, Kirralee took up competitive swimming when she was 11. The Brisbane-born swimmer made her Paralympics debut in Tokyo, although she missed the final in her two events.

Hayes joined coach Yuriy Vdovychenko at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra in 2022 but continues to work with Genesis coach Rick Pendleton when home in Brisbane.

Kirralee’s sporting hero is her first swimming coach Brendan Keogh. A country music fan, Kirralee also owns three goats.