Paralympian Tiffany Thomas Kane, OAM, a retired Australian Paralympic swimmer, has been announced as Narrandera Shire’s Australia Day Ambassador. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, winning a gold and three bronze medals, and at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, winning a further two bronze medals. Tiffany was born on 9 August, 2001 with hypochondroplasia, a developmental disorder causing short stature. She attended Ravenswood School for Girls in Sydney. She took up swimming at the age of three years and is an S6 swimmer. In 2015, she trained under Lach Falvey at Ravenswood Swim Club, the same club as dual world champion and Olympic silver medallist James Magnussen. She was the youngest Australian swimmer selected to compete at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland after breaking world records at the 2015 Australian Swimming Championships. At the age of 13, at 2015 IPC Swimming Championships, she won a gold medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB6 in a world record time of 1:34.95, silver medal in the women’s 50m butterfly S6 and bronze medals in the women’s 50m freestyle S6 and women’s 100m freestyle S6. She finished fifth in the women’s 100m backstroke S6 and seventh in the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay 20pts and was awarded Swimming Australia’s 2015 AIS Discovery of the Year award. In 2015, she became a NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder. At the 2016 Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide, she set a world record of 43.06 in women’s S6 in winning the Women’s 50 breast multi-class event. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, she won the gold medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB6 with Paralympic record time of 1:35.39 and also won bronze medals in the women’s 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly S6 and 200m individual medley SM6. Tiffany was officially awarded an Order of Australia medal in January 2017 for her “service to sport” following her accomplishments in Rio de Janeiro the previous year. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, Tiffany finished fourth in two events – women’s S8 50m freestyle and women’s S7 50m butterfly. At the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London, Tiffany won the gold medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB7 and placed fifth in four other events. Then at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, she won bronze medals in the women’s 100m breaststroke SB7 (with a time of 1:35.02) and the women’s 200m individual medley SM7 (with a time of 3:03.02). She also swam in the 50m butterfly S7 but failed to advance to the final. Her retirement was announced in April 2022. Other Ambassadors for councils in the Narrandera Argus coverage area are: Coolamon Shire Council: Mr Ethan Butson - scientist and inventor Cootamundra Gundagai Council - Cootamundra: Mr Peter McLean - CEO, Bicycle NSW, not-for-profit specialist and advocate Cootamundra Gundagai Council - Gundagai: Mr Corey Payne -Former NRL player, founder, Future Direction Network and 2013 NSW Young Australian of the Year Federation Council - Corowa: Mr John Harper OAM- founder, Mate Helping Mate, mental health and wellbeing advocate Griffith City Council: Ms Alexandra Moore - dual Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist - gymnastics and diving Leeton Shire Council: Mr Michael Tomalaris - journalist, TV presenter and cycling advocate Lockhart Shire Council: Mr Rob Caslick - social entrepreneur & founder, Two Good Co. Murrumbidgee Council: Mr Geoffrey Coombes OAM - founder STRYDE, co-founder Tour de Cure and social impact entrepreneur.
