Jessica-Jane Applegate

Jessica-Jane Applegate
MBE

Jessica-Jane Applegate with her gold medal in S14 200m Freestyle after the 2012 Summer Paralympics
Personal information
Full name	Jessica-Jane Applegate
Nationality	British
Born	(1996-08-22) 22 August 1996 (age 28) Great Yarmouth, England
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	freestyle, backstroke
Club	City of Norwich Swimming Club
Medal record Women's para swimming Representing  Great Britain Paralympic Games 2012 London 200m freestyle S14 2020 Tokyo mixed 4 × 100 m freestyle relay S14 2016 Rio de Janeiro 200m freestyle S14 2016 Rio de Janeiro 200m medley SM14 2016 Rio de Janeiro 100m backstroke S14 2020 Tokyo 200 m freestyle S14 2020 Tokyo 100 m backstroke S14 World Championships 2013 Montreal 200m freestyle S14 2015 Glasgow 100m backstroke S14 2023 Manchester 200m freestyle S14 2013 Montreal 200m medley SM14 2015 Glasgow 200m freestyle S14 2015 Glasgow 200m medley SM14 2022 Madeira 200m freestyle S14 2022 Madeira 200m ind. medley SM14 2013 Montreal 100m freestyle S14 2022 Madeira 100m backstroke S14 European Championships 2014 Eindhoven 200m freestyle S14 2016 Funchal 200 m freestyle S14 2016 Funchal 100 m backstroke S14 2014 Eindhoven 100m backstroke S14 2014 Eindhoven 200m medley S14 Representing  England Commonwealth Games 2022 Birmingham 200m freestyle S14

Jessica-Jane Applegate MBE (born 22 August 1996^[1]) is a British Paralympic swimmer. Applegate competes in the S14 classification for swimmers with intellectual disabilities, mainly freestyle and backstroke preferring shorter distances. She qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympics and on 2 September, Applegate won the gold setting a Paralympic record in the S14 200m freestyle.

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to swimming.^[2][3]

Early life

Applegate was born in 1996 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. She was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and began swimming at a young age after her mother took her to Lowestoft and Oulton Broad Swimming Club.^[4][5] Educated at Ormiston Venture Academy, by the age of 13 she was setting regional records and was selected for a UK sporting talent programme.^[6]

Swimming career

Towards the end of 2011, Applegate was showing potential as an International competitive swimmer, setting the second-fastest world Paralympic time in the 50m and the third fastest in the 200m freestyle at the Wales Winter Open.^[4] In 2012, she entered her first overseas tournament at the Berlin Open, taking two bronzes, in the 50m and 100m freestyle.^[7] Applegate then followed her success in Berlin by taking the gold in the 200m freestyle at the 2012 British Swimming Championship in March. In taking the gold she not only finished four seconds inside the Great Britain Paralympic qualifying time but also set a new British record.^[8]

Her last major meet before the Paralympics, the 2012 British International Disability Swimming Championships, saw Applegate win three medals. She took silver in the S14 50m and 100m freestyle races, and then on the last day of the tournament, in a very tight race against Ireland's Bethany Firth, she took gold with a time of 2:15.23.^[7][9] Her results over the prior tournaments saw Applegate qualify for the 2012 Summer Paralympics in both the S14 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke.

In the Paralympics, Applegate's first event was the 100m backstroke on 31 August. She qualified in third place in the heats and then swam a personal best of 1:09.58 in the final to finish just outside the medals in fourth place.^[10] In her favoured 200m freestyle, Applegate qualified for the final in first place with a time of 2:14.31. She then improved on this again in the final, coming from behind in the final length to win the gold medal and set a time of 2:12.63, a Paralympic record.^[5]

In 2013 Applegate again represented Great Britain when she travelled to Montreal to compete in the IPC World Championships. There she won three medals including a gold in the 200m freestyle. She also took silver in the 200m medley and bronze in the 100m freestyle.^[7]

Applegate represented Great Britain in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio where she won a silver in the women's 200m freestyle S14^[11] and women's 200m individual medley SM14^[12] and a bronze in the women's 100m backstroke S14.^[13]

She was selected for her third Paralympics when she was selected for the postponed 2020 Tokyo Paralympics in July 2021.^[14] In Tokyo, she won gold in the mixed 4 × 100 m freestyle relay S14^[15] and bronze in the women's 200m freestyle S14^[16] and 100m backstroke S14.^[17]

See also

• 2012 Olympics gold post boxes in the United Kingdom

References

1. "APPLEGATE Jessica-Jane". Paralympic.org.
2. "No. 60367". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2012. p. 24.
3. "2013 New Year's Honours" (PDF). Retrieved 29 December 2012.
4. "Meet The Team – Jessica-Jane Applegate". swimming.org. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
5. Pearce, Nick (2 September 2012). "Jessica-Jane Applegate become first intellectually disabled Brit to win gold at 2012 Paralympic Games". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
6. "Disabled athlete's funding boost". greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk. 30 January 2010. Archived from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
7. "Jessica-Jane Applegate". paralympics.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
8. Pinniger, Alex. "British Gas Swimming Championships 2012". cityofnorwichsc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
9. "Golden Simmonds brings curtain down on Paralympic Trials". swimming.org. 8 April 2012. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
10. "Hynd brothers reach podium on day two". swimming.org. 31 August 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
11. "Relive a magical day for ParalympicsGB". BBC Sport. 11 September 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
12. "Paralympics 2016: Day 10". BBC Sport. 17 September 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
13. Sport, Disability. "Rio Paralympics: Bethany Firth secures gold medal in world record time", BBC Sport. 9 September 2016. Retrieved on 10 August 2022.
14. Armstrong, Mark (1 July 2021). "Yarmouth swimmer Jessica-Jane Applegate named in Paralympic team". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
15. "Tokyo Paralympics: Maisie Summers-Newton and mixed relay team add swimming golds". BBC Sport. 28 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
16. "Tokyo Paralympics: Bethany Firth takes silver in S14 200m freestyle final". BBC Sport. 27 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
17. "Tokyo Paralympics: Dan Pembroke, Bethany Firth and Ben Watson win golds for Great Britain". BBC Sport. 2 September 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2022.

External links

• Jessica-Jane Applegate at British Swimming
• Jessica-Jane Applegate at ParalympicsGB
• Jessica-Jane Applegate at the International Paralympic Committee
• Jessica-Jane Applegate at IPC.InfostradaSports.com (archived)
• Jessica-Jane Applegate at Team England
• Jessica-Jane Applegate at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games