Swimming Career.

Marayke's Paralympic dream began as a small child, when she saw the Seoul Olympics on tv and was captivated by the idea of racing athletes from all over the world.

By the age of 2 she could swim across the pool unaided.
Since she competed at the State championships at age six, Marayke has raced in events all around the country and travelled to 33 countries winning a swag of medal for Australia. 

Marayke has broken the world record for 100m butterfly(s5 class), and has broken over 70 Australian junior records in breaststroke, individual medley, freestyle and butterfly.

She made her Paralympic debut as an 18 year old at the Sydney 2000 Games, where she was the first Australian swimmer to compete , racing in the first event on the first day.

There she   took 21 seconds off her best time and broke the  Australian record to place 6th in her ‘practice event’  the 150m individual medley. Two days later she backed up with another Australian record only to place an agonisingly close 4th by on one hundredth of a second in the 50m breast stroke.

Determined not to miss the medals again, she threw herself back into training and won gold,silver and bronze at the US Nationals in 2001.

In 2002 at the IPC World Swimming Championships in Argentina, she finally conquered her demons beating her main rival from Sydney to win two silver medals in Australian record time.

Marayke’s key events are the 150m individual medley (SM4 class) and the 50m m Breaststroke.

Demonstrating her remarkable athletic ability, Marayke recently taken up handcycling as a form of cross training and was stunned to win gold for the road race at the 2006 national championships.

She trains 6 days a week, swimming 576 km’s a year.

After 10 years representing Australia, She is now the eldest and longest serving female on the Australian Paralympic swim team.