Sport
21 May, 2025
Brooke’s blitz in the pool
BELGRAVIA Swim Team’s only multi-class swimmer, Brooke Cotter, is making a splash in the competitive para swimming circuit, just three years after taking up the sport.
The 39-year-old Caboolture local trains at the Burpengary Regional Aquatic Leisure Centre and will travel to South Australia next month for the Australian Para Swimming Trials.
The event will determine national selections for the International Para Swim Championships in Singapore, to be held from 21–27 September.
Brooke recently qualified for the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events at the Australian Open Swimming Championships in Brisbane.
“I was at the Paralympic trials last year, but I didn’t make anywhere near the qualifying times to go across,” she said.
“I now need to be reclassified as an international swimmer, but it’s looking highly likely I’ll be getting very close to those international qualifying times.
“To go to Singapore this year in the 50m freestyle, I’m 0.85 seconds—so less than one second—off qualifying for the para championships this year.”
Brooke began swimming in 2021 following a battle with cancer that resulted in the use of a wheelchair and ongoing neurological complications.
She took up hydrotherapy before joining the Belgravia Swim Team in January 2022.
“When I first started swimming back then, I was having to wear a flotation belt because I couldn’t swim without something on me,” she said.
“It was my exercise physiologist who suggested to get into some type of swimming competitions, little did we know I would get as far as I have.”
Her disability has not slowed her down.
Cotter now holds four Queensland records—in the 50m freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke, and established the record for the 400m freestyle.
She says swimming brings a deep sense of freedom.
“It’s the sense of freedom and it’s a natural pain relief for me, with the movement through the body and my spine,” she said.
