Tully Kearney

Personal history

Kearney was born in Nottingham, England in 1997 and grew up in Aldridge. She was born with cerebral palsy and generalised dystonia which affects her lower limbs and left hand side of her body. She attended Cooper and Jordan Primary School in Walsall, where one of her fellow pupils was future Paralympic gold medalist Ellie Simmonds. She continued her education at the Royal Wolverhampton School. Kearney studied for her A-Levels at The Streetly Academy.

Career history

Kearney began swimming at the age of nine, after being approached by a coach while she watched her mother and brother swim at the local pool. She decided to take up swimming competitively after being inspired when Ellie Simmonds displayed her Paralympic medals at a school assembly. Kearney joined Boldmere Swimming Club in 2012 and was coached by Ashley Cox. Classified as a S10 and SB9 swimmer, at the age of 14 she was competing nationally in youth competitions winning gold in seven events at the DSE (Disability Sports Events) Championships in Sheffield.

2011 also saw Kearney enter her first international competition was at the 25th German Open Meet in Berlin. In her age group events she took seven medals, and followed this with silvers in and S10 200m and 400m freestyles and gold in the SM10 200m individual medley in the open age events. The 2011/12 season saw Kearney selected as a World Class Development Funded Athlete, by British Disability Swimming, under the coaching of Nathan Hilton. At the 2013 British International Disability Swim Championships held in Sheffield, Kearney twice broke the British record for the 100m S10 backstroke, during the heats and then again in the final. She also recorded personal bests in three other events. Her performance on that day won her a place in the British Team taking part in the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal. At Montreal, Kearney entered five different events and won bronze in the Women's 400m Freestyle S10 behind France's Elodie Lorandi and Canada's Aurelie Rivard.

An illness during British trials in 2014, saw Kearney miss out on a place for both the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow and the European Championships in Eindhoven. She returned to swimming, competing in the National Paralympic Day swimming event at the London Aquatics Centre, winning the multi-classification 400m freestyle. She followed this with being awarded Junior Sportsperson of the Year at the Birmingham Sports Awards 2014, an award special to her as it was contended by both able-bodied and parasport athletes.

In 2015 Kearney was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships held in Glasgow. Due to her progressive illness, Kearney was reclassified before the trials as a S9 swimmer in her butterfly, freestyle and medley events. She was entered into seven events, including the freestyle relay and medley relay team events. She took home six medals in total, with golds in the medley relay, 100m butterfly (S9), 200m individual medley (SM9) and 400m freestyle (S9). Kearney also finished second in the 100m backstroke S9, behind a world record breaking swim by Australia's Ellie Cole, and took bronze in the freestyle relay. Her gold in the 400m freestyle saw Kearney set a new European record with a time of 4:39.29, over ten seconds ahead of her silver placed rival, Nuria Marques Soto of Spain. Kearney also set a European record in the 100m butterfly, recording a time of 1:09.04. Her third European record was in the 200m individual medley in which she posted a time of 2:31.08. Tully finished 2015 by making the final three athletes shortlisted for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year at the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.