Cortney Jordan

In recent years, Cortney Jordan has established herself as one of the U.S. women’s top freestyle swimmers. Heading into Beijing, Jordan looked to solidify her reputation by planning to compete in six events, including three freestyle races. Once Jordan got into her groove, she proved that all the hype was well-deserved. After winning bronze in the 200m individual medley SM7, Jordan secured her first-ever gold medal by setting a Paralympic record in the 50m freestyle S7. With two freestyle swims left Jordan did not let up, winning two more silver medals to bring her total medal haul to four.

 

A seventeen-year-old Jordan won three bronze medals, all in freestyle races (50m, 100m and 400m) at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships. In 2007, at the 2007 U.S. Paralympics Open Swimming Championships, Jordan set American records in the 50m, 100m, and 200m backstroke and she smashed the 800m world record by more than 24 seconds. Months before Beijing, Jordan broke the 200m freestyle American record and in April 2008 earned a spot on the Paralympic team.  In 2010 Jordan had another great performance at the IPC Swimming World Championships where she took home a silver medal (50m freestyle) and three bronze medals (100m freestyle, 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley).

Jordan followed in the footsteps of her grandfather, father and older sister, all of whom are also swimmers. She says her older sister encouraged her to get into competitive swimming and serves as her personal cheerleader. 

 

While swimming for her high school swim team, Cortney served as Captain her senior year.  She was awarded the Sportsmanship Award and Most Inspirational Swimmer for Coronado High School.  She finished 11th in the 200 freestyle and 15th in the 100 backstroke in the Sunrise Regional Swim Meet.