Grace Harvey
Personal information
NationalityBritish
Born31 August 1998 (1998-08-31) (age 25)[1][2]
Ware, Hertfordshire, England[3]
Occupation(s)Undergraduate at UoM; Laboratory Technician
Sport
SportParalympic swimming
Disability classS5, SB5
EventBreaststroke
Medal record
Women's Para swimming
Representing  Great Britain
Paralympic Games
Silver medal – second place2020 Tokyo 100m breaststroke SB5
World Championships
Gold medal – first place2022 Madeira100m breaststroke SB5
Silver medal – second place2023 Manchester100m breaststroke SB5
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place2022 Birmingham100m breaststroke SB6

Grace Harvey (born 31 August 1998)[1][2] is a British Paralympic swimmer, and European and British record holder, who specializes in the breaststroke.

Career

Harvey is a British para-swimmer competing in the S6 SB5 SM6 classification for swimmers with a physical impairment. Grace's home town is Ware, Hertfordshire.[3][4] She learnt to swim when aged four and she took it up as a sport to control the symptoms of cerebral palsy which caused her legs to spasm. She decided that she wanted to be an athlete after she watched the 2004 Summer Paralympics.[5] Harvey is supported by National Lottery funding.[6]

Harvey's favourite competition location is Sheffield at the Ponds Forge sports centre.[4] In April 2021 she came first in points in the freestyle swimming where she beat Maisie Summers-Newton into second place.[7] She and Lyndon Longhorne both broke European records and together with Conner Morrison they were all early picks for the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics by the selectors. Her good friend Alice Tai[4] had to withdraw from the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics due to an injury to her elbow in June 2021.[8] While Harvey was training in Japan before the Tokyo games began she (and the BBC) was invited to Suzuka International University where she tried out a robotic walking suit that allowed her to walk for the first time. She found the experience "overwhelming" but later that day she cried realising that this might be the first and last time and that she now knew a pleasure that she had never known, but could now miss.[9]

In August 2022 she won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham by swimming the Women's 100m Breaststroke SB6.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 "Grace Harvey". British Swimming. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Grace Harvey". Team England. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  3. 1 2 Frankie Lister Fell (25 August 2021). "The Hertfordshire athletes competing in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games". Hertfordshire Mercury. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 "Getting to know Grace Harvey". British Swimming. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  5. ↑ "Grace Harvey - Swimming | Paralympic Athlete Profile". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  6. 1 2 "Grace Harvey smashes season best to bag Commonwealth silver in Birmingham". uk.sports.yahoo.com. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  7. ↑ "Grace is over the moon on BPSIM day one". British Swimming. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  8. ↑ "Elbow injury forces swimmer Alice Tai out of Paralympic Games". Messenger Newspapers. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  9. ↑ "Para-swimmer 'overwhelmed' by robotic suit walk". BBC News. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
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