Karni Liddell

Karni Liddell

Personal information
Nationality	Australia
Born	1 March 1979 Rockhampton, Queensland
Medal record Swimming Paralympic Games 1996 Atlanta Women's 50 m Freestyle S6 2000 Sydney Women's 4x50 m Freestyle 20 pts

Karni Liddell (born 1 March 1979) is a Paralympic swimming competitor from Australia.

Personal

Liddell was born on 1 March 1979 in Rockhampton, Queensland. She is a radio presenter for 4BC.

At twelve months old, Liddell was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. She attended school in Rockhampton, Queensland. Her parents were told by doctors that she would never be able to walk and that she would not live past her teens. As a youngster, from the age of two to sixteen, she rode horses as part of physical therapy.

Liddell, alongside Branka Pupovac, Hamish MacDonald and Charmaine Dalli, was one of eighteen Australian Paralympians photographed by Emma Hack for a nude calendar. Liddell's photography depicts her wearing sunglasses and a covered in body paint made to look like a polka-dotted bikini. In 2008, she was one of several Queenslanders to have their images painted by Ludmila Clark to have the picture go on display at the Customs House in Rockhampton.

Swimming

By the age of 14, Liddell had broken a swimming world record. She has competed at two Paralympic Games: 1996 and 2000. She won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games in the Women's 50 m Freestyle S6 event. She won a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Games in the Women's 4x50 m Freestyle 20 pts event.

Disability sport

Liddell is part of a mentoring programme for Australian Paralympians called Youngcare. She is an ambassador for Riding for the Disabled. In 2010, she tried to raise A$100,000 for Muscular Dystrophy Queensland to research muscular dystrophy. At the 2011 North Queensland Athletics Carnival for Students with Disabilities (The Challenge Games), Liddell gave one of the opening speeches to kick off the event.