Lakeisha “Lucky” Patterson has cerebral palsy, early-onset Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and micrographia. She took up swimming at the age of three as therapy for her legs – to ease her muscles and give her a good night’s rest. Since taking up the sport however it became a passion rather than a medical treatment.
In 2014, Patterson was readying herself for the Para Pan Pacs in August but gained an unexpected ticket to Glasgow after an injury to Paralympic champion Jacqueline Freney. The youngest swimmer on the team, Patterson won bronze in the S8 100m freestyle, touching the wall in 1:08.98. Fellow Australian Maddison Elliott, also 15, won gold and set a new world record in the event (1:05.32), with silver going to England’s Stephanie Slater.
Lakeisha went on to compete at the 2015 World Championships where won silver in the 50m freestyle and 4×100m medley relay 34 points and bronze …
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Lakeisha “Lucky” Patterson has cerebral palsy, early-onset Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and micrographia. She took up swimming at the age of three as therapy for her legs – to ease her muscles and give her a good night’s rest. Since taking up the sport however it became a passion rather than a medical treatment.
In 2014, Patterson was readying herself for the Para Pan Pacs in August but gained an unexpected ticket to Glasgow after an injury to Paralympic champion Jacqueline Freney. The youngest swimmer on the team, Patterson won bronze in the S8 100m freestyle, touching the wall in 1:08.98. Fellow Australian Maddison Elliott, also 15, won gold and set a new world record in the event (1:05.32), with silver going to England’s Stephanie Slater.
Lakeisha went on to compete at the 2015 World Championships where won silver in the 50m freestyle and 4×100m medley relay 34 points and bronze medals in the 100m freestyle and 400m freestyle. She also teamed up with Ashleigh McConnell, Ellie Cole and Maddison Elliot to win gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Anchoring the 4×100 medley relay at the World Championships was her highlight from the successful meet. Diving in from fifth position, Lakeisha swam a personal best time in her freestyle leg to bring the team home to claim the silver medal.
Firmly cementing her status as one to watch at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Lakeisha made a splash when in the 400m freestyle, her debut race, she won Australia’s first gold medal of the Games and set a new world record, Paralympic record and Oceania record of 4:40:33 slicing 0.11 seconds off the previous world record time set by her long term idol, Jessica Long who placed second.
She was also a member of the team that won the gold meda in the 4 x 10m freestyle relay, and won three silver medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle behind fellow teammate Maddison Elliott and in the 4 x 100m medley relay.
Originally from Wodonga, Victoria, Lakeisha is now based in Caboolture, Queensland and trains in the high performance Para-swimming program at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
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