Toni Shaw

Toni Shaw followed up a breakthrough 2018 by securing no fewer than six medals at her debut World Para Swimming Championships a year later in London.

The Aberdeen-based athlete was part of the gold-winning British teams in the Women’s 34pt 4x100m Freestyle Relay and 34pt 4x100m Medley Relay events in London, while she also secured individual S9 400m Freestyle and S9 100m Butterfly silvers, as well as bronze in the S9 100m Freestyle and S9 200m Individual Medley.

The year before, after a series of impressive swims at the 2018 British Para-Swimming International Meet, Shaw went on to compete at her first European Para Swimming Championships in Dublin.

Six medals - two of each colour - were again the result, as well as a world record in the Women’s 34pt 4x100m Medley Relay. The golds came in that relay and the individual S9 400m Freestyle event, with silvers in the S9 100m Butterfly and SM9 200m Individual Medley and bronzes across the S9 100m Freestyle and S9 100m Backstroke categories.

Before that impressive effort, Shaw reached the final of all four of her events at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games for Team Scotland, with her best finishes coming in the S9 100m Freestyle and Backstroke, where she was fifth at the touch.

Making her Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Shaw once again showed plenty of promise with three fourth-placed finishes and an incredible bronze medal over her favoured distance in the S9 400m freestyle final.

Shaw upgraded from bronze to Gold in the S9 400m freestyle at the 2022 World Championships in Madeira - as well as adding a bronze in the S9 100m butterfly. She secured another long distance bronze one year later at the Manchester 2023 edition.