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Poppy Maskill (born 22 March 2005)[1] is a British Paralympic swimmer. Maskill competes in the S14, SM14 and SB14 classifications for swimmers with intellectual impairments.[2] She won three gold and two silver medals at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, making her ParalympicsGB's most successful athlete at the Games.[3]
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| Full name | Poppy Maskill | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 22 March 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classifications | S14, SM14, SB14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | National Performance Centre, Manchester | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Maskill was born in 2005 in Cheshire and grew up in Middlewich. She has two sisters.[4] She was chosen as the Middlewich Rose Queen in 2014, when she was nine.[5][6]
Senior career
2022
Her first major international competition of her career was the 2022 World Championships in Madeira, which took place in June of that year. She competed in four events and came away with three medals: a gold in the mixed 4x100 m medley relay S14, a silver in the 100 m backstroke, and a bronze in the 100 m butterfly.[7] In August she competed in the 200 m freestyle S14 in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, finishing fourth behind England teammates Jessica-Jane Applegate and Louise Fiddes, with Northern Irish competitor Bethany Firth taking gold.[8] Maskill rounded out a successful first senior year at the British Para-Swimming Winter National Meet in November. She medalled in all her age-category events, winning four gold and two silver medals.[9]
2023
Maskill followed up her success at the previous year's World Championships at the 2023 edition in Manchester, competing in five events and medalling in all five. She won gold in the mixed 4x100 m freestyle relay S14 alongside Applegate, William Ellard and Jordan Catchpole. She, Applegate, Ellard and Scott Quin took silver in the medley relay. Maskill took individual medals in the 100 m butterfly S14 (silver), 100 m backstroke S14 (silver) and 200 m individual medley SM14 (bronze).[10]
2024
On 20 May 2024 it was announced that Maskill had been selected as a member of the ParalympicsGB swimming squad that would compete at the 2024 Games in Paris.[11] She competed in five events at the Paralympics, medalling in all five. She won three gold medals: in the 100 m butterfly S14,[12] 100 m backstroke S14,[13] and mixed 4x100 m freestyle relay S14 (alongside William Ellard, Rhys Darbey and Olivia Newman-Baronius).[14] She additionally set a world record in the 100 m butterfly S14 final; her medal in this event was also Great Britain's first gold of the Games.[15] She won two silver medals in the 200 m freestyle S14 and 200 m individual medley SM14.[16][17] Maskill's medal haul made her ParalympicsGB's most successful athlete at the Games.[3] In recognition of this, she was given the honour – alongside para-taekwondo gold medallist Matt Bush – of being a GB flagbearer at the Paralympics Closing Ceremony.[18]
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In 2021, Maskill won Disability Sports Achiever at the Everybody Awards, which was presented to her by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.[19] She had previously been nominated for the award in 2019.[20]
The following year, she made the ten-person shortlist of SportsAid's One-to-Watch Award.[21] She additionally won Para-Swimming Emerging Athlete of 2021-22 at the 2022 British Swimming Awards.[22]
In 2023 Maskill was included on the longlist of ten athletes nominated for BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.[23]
Following her performances at the 2024 Paralympics, it was announced that Maskill would be awarded the Freedom of Middlewich, her hometown. She will be only the fifth person to be given the honour, and the youngest ever Freeman.[24]
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