Katja Dedekind PLY holds a resume unmatched by any athlete her age, as a Paralympic champion, Commonwealth Games champion, World champion and World-Record holder.
Breaking onto the Australian Dolphins team in 2016, Katja made the Paralympic team after an incredible performance at the Australian National Championships. She would quickly go on to stun the world at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, winning bronze in the women’s 100m backstroke s13 at just 15-years old! Katja would return in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to win two bronze medals, securing a PB and setting a new Australian record.
2022 marked another huge year for Katja, where she won gold and two silvers at the World Para Swimming Championships, before winning gold and setting a World-Record time in the women’s 50m freestyle S13 at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Born in Durban, South Africa but raised in Queensland, Katja is a dual-sport vision-impaired athlete as a swimmer and goal-ball player, with blindness in her right eye and peripheral vision loss in her left eye.
Beyond the pool, Katja is a fantastic advocate and voice for women suffering from endometriosis, a condition which she suffers from herself, and sparks conversation around an otherwise taboo topic.
For her incredible achievements, Katja has been the proud recipient of an Australian Sports Medal, The Patron’s 2022 Paralympic Program Swimmer Award, the Queensland Government’s 2022 Queensland Sport Athlete with a Disability Award, and more!
Katja now looks to add to her tremendous resume at the upcoming 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, were she will be looking to break new records representing the green & gold.
