One of Australia's brightest prospects in the pool, Minna Atherton is emerging as one of the strongest female backstroke swimmers in the world.
Brisbane born and raised, Minna Atherton’s journey started in primary school, when her physical education teacher encouraged her to pursue swimming.
Minna began swimming competitively at the age of 10 and has been coached by David Lush since the age of 11.
Minna was a part of the Australian Junior Swim team from 2014 and burst onto the scene at the 2015 World Junior Championships where she won dual gold in the 100m and 200m backstroke.
At the age of 16, Minna made her first senior team at the 2016 World Short Course in Windsor. In her final year of school in 2017, Minna withdrew from international competitions to focus on her study. Consequently, Minna was accepted to study Biomedical Science at Bond University as a recipient of the Georgina Hope Rinehart Swimming Excellence Scholarship.
In 2018, at the world championships, Minna won her first three senior international medals claiming bronze in the 100m backstroke, 4x100m freestyle relay and the 4x200m freestyle relay.
One year later in 2019, Minna improved yet again achieving a gold medal in the 4x100m relay, alongside two silvers in the 100m backstroke and 4x100m medley relay at the world championships in Gwangju.
At the inaugural International Swimming League in 2019, Minna was selected in the London Roar team who finished second, where she demonstrated her talent breaking the 100m backstroke short course world record with a time of 54.89 seconds.
In 2022 Minna was selected in her second Commonwealth Games squad. She performed well in both the 100m and 200m backstroke, narrowly missing the podium and finishing 4th in both finals.
Minna is currently studying a Biomedical Science degree at Bond University, which commenced after she was chosen as the recipient of the Georgina Hope Rinehart Swimming Excellence Scholarship.
Minna is a Speedo International ambassador and supports the World Vision charity by sponsoring a child.
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