Ruby Storm (swimming) created a slice of history in Birmingham when became just the second Indigenous Para-swimmer to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games after Ben Austin OAM. Ruby, who swam the 200m freestyle S14, is from the Wiradjuri tribe in Deniliquin, NSW, but grew up in Traralgon on the lands of the Gunaikurnai people.

After some impressive swims at the 2018 Para Pan Pacific Championships trials, Ruby was selected for the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London, picking up a bronze medal as part of the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay 34 points team. She also swam in four individual events, with a best placing of fifth in the women’s 100m butterfly S14.

Next were the Tokyo Paralympics where she claimed silver in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay S14 and bronze in the women’s 100m butterfly S14 as one of the youngest athletes at the Games. She also won successive world championships silver medals in the mixed 4x100m freestyle S14 at Madeira 2022 and Manchester 2023.

Ruby was originally petrified of water when she was young. She took up swimming when she was seven with former coach Dean Gooch in Traralgon and moved to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in 2021 to train with Nathan Doyle at USC Spartans.

Ruby lives with autism and wants to become a florist when she retires from the sport.