Katie
Cosgriffe

Katie Cosgriffe has emerged on the international Para swimming scene with blistering swims in the Women’s 100m Butterfly S10 and Women’s 100m Backstroke S10 events at the Swimming Canada 2024 Paralympic Trials in May 2024, to earn her place to debut Paralympics in Paris.

It has been a rapid rise for the teenager from Oakville, Ontario who obtained her international classification in April 2023 and went on to represent Canada at the Manchester 2023 Para Swimming World Championships. Swimming in five events against the world’s best Para swimmers and despite being the youngest swimmer on the team, Katie showed talent beyond her years, narrowly missing the podiums in the Women’s 100m Butterfly S10 and Women’s 100m Backstroke S10 events. Her efforts in Manchester earned her the title of Swimming Canada’s 2023 Breakout Para Swimmer of the Year.

Involved in competitive swimming since the age of nine, Katie turned to Para swimming after being diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) in early 2021, one of the most common inherited neurological disorders. While it is a progressive disease of the peripheral nerves, it causes sensations, and loss of normal functions, in the feet, arms, hands and legs.

Katie competes in the S10 classification, a swimming classification used for categorizing swimmers based on their level of disability. Swimmers in this class tend to have minimal weakness affecting their legs, missing feet, a missing leg below the knee or problems with their hips. This class includes several different disabilities including people with amputations and cerebral palsy.

Out of the pool, Katie will study for a Bachelor of Business Administration and Financial Math and compete for the Wilfrid Laurier University swim team beginning in the 2024-25 season.