Laurence McGivern
| Personal information | |||||||
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| Full name | Laurence Gerard McGivern | ||||||
| Nationality |
 Ireland
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| Born |
22 September 1992 Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland |
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| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||
| Weight | 72 kg (159 lb) | ||||||
| Sport | |||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||
| Strokes |
Freestyle Backstroke |
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| Club | Invictus | ||||||
| College team | Queens University Belfast | ||||||
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Medal record
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Laurence McGivern (born September 22, 1992) is a retired Irish Paralympic swimmer from Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland. He lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland where he swam with Invictus Swimming Club under coaching of Steven McQuillan. He has congenital amputations of both legs just below the knee. McGivern competed in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 Paralympic Games as well as various IPC World and European Swimming Championships. He competes in the S9 classification in his main event, the 100m backstroke. Laurence's most recent achievement was a third place and bronze medal at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal 2013.
Laurence was encouraged to take up many sports and hobbies, including; Football, Athletics, Judo, Trampolining, Irish Dancing and ultimately Swimming. He attended the Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School in Newry, Northern Ireland, refining his sporting abilities and further realising his potential in swimming. He was also heavily involved in academic work and developed a strong passion for music. Laurence plays the piano and sings at a high level, performing at many local concerts and events in his spare time. McGivern soon joined Newry & Mourne ASC Swimming Club and competed at district, county and regional levels, including various open meets throughout the year. In 2012, after successfully completing A level examinations, he moved to Belfast where he was accepted to study Accounting with French at Queen's University Belfast. Here he joined 'Invictus', one of Ireland's premier competitive swimming clubs.
Laurence competed in the International Paralympic Committee's S9 (freestyle, backstroke and butterfly) SB8 (breaststroke) and SM9 (individual medley) classifications; which is said to consist of swimmers with a severe leg weakness, swimmers with slight coordination problems and swimmers with one limb loss. McGivern started swimming when he was still in primary school and after a few years his potential was recognised by Paralympics Ireland. He soon joined Newry & Mourne ASC Swimming Club to develop his talent and as his love for the sport grew, he dedicated more and more time to training, and set a goal to one day compete in the Paralympic Games. He competed at various local and national meets for the first few years of his training, setting and maintaining the current Irish S9 records in all strokes, before eventually qualifying for Senior IPC European and World Swimming championships and even the Commonwealth Games and Paralympic Games.
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