Ben Popham
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 Ben Popham in 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Australian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 4 September 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Paralympic swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | S9 SB8, SM9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Arena Swim Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Simon Redmond | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ben Popham OAM (born 4 September 2000) is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He represented Australia at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, winning a silver and two bronze medals, and the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, where he won two gold medals and a silver. He was also a member of the West Australian team that won the 2025 National Para Soccer Championships.
Popham was born on 4 September 2000. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as an infant.[1] In 2011 he was chosen to be one of the Channel Seven Perth Telethon's "Little Telethon Stars".[2] In 2019, he commenced a Bachelor of Commerce at Curtin University.[1]
Swimming career
Popham commenced swimming as a seven year old as part of his physical therapy program for cerebral palsy.[1] Popham made his international debut when he represented Australia at the 2018 Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships in Cairns and won the Men's 100m Freestyle S8 and was a member of the Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay (34 points) team.[3]
At the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London, Popham won a silver medal in the Men's 100m Freestyle S8 and bronze medals in the Men's 50m Freestyle S8 and Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle 34 points.[4]
At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Popham won a gold medal in the Men's 100m freestyle S8 with a time of 57.37 Together with Rowan Crothers, Matt Levy and William Martin, he won gold and broke the current World Record for the Men's 4×100 m freestyle 34 pts by almost 2 seconds.[5] In the Men's 4x100m Medley 34 pts, he swam together with Timothy Disken, Timothy Hodge, and William Martin. His team won the silver medal in a time of 4:07.70, just over a second behind the winners, RPC, who set a new world record.[6][7] He also competed in the 400 m freestyle S8 where he qualified for the final. He came eighth in the final with a time of 4:49.32.
He has since been reclassified to an S9 swimmer, a class for athletes with more physical ability compared to the S8 classification.