Leeds Sport are pleased to announce that Para Swimmer Zara Mullooly has been selected for the British Para-Swimming’s World Class Programme for 2022.
Zara joined the University of Leeds in 2021 and is currently studying Law alongside her training.
Having come from Northampton Swimming Club, which in recent years has produced multiple Paralympic Champions including Maisie Summers-Newton, she has joined a long list of world class athletes on a Sports Scholar programme. To ensure a healthy balance of both her training and studies, Zara receives a high level of educational and sports specific support, including Strength and Conditioning (S&C), as well as Dual Career Policy educational support.
During her Para-Swimming career she has won multiple world championship medals in the S10 category for the 50m Freestyle and 400m Freestyle, as well as being a European gold medallist in the British Women’s 34 point 4 x 100m Medley Relay. Her main events are the 50m, 100m and 400m Freestyle for which she holds the current British records over both Long Course and Short Course meters.
The pinnacle of her career thus far was selection for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games. During her time in Japan, she competed in the 50m, 100m, and 400m Freestyle, as well as two relays for Team GB, only narrowly missing out on a medal, coming 4th in two of these events.
Looking to the future, Zara hopes to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, as well as the postponed World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, with the ultimate goal of a second Paralympics in Paris 2024.
On her selection to the World Class Programme, Head of Swimming Jacob Greenhalgh had this to say:
“Zara is an intelligent, polite and hard worker and it is testament to work that she has put in that she has been selected to get onto the World Class Pathway. We will continue to support her during this time to make sure she achieves all that she can from swimming and her degree. She is a credit to the University of
Leeds, Leeds Sport, the Swimming and Water Polo Society and I am extremely grateful to have such a person within my squad who gives their all in every practice to improve.”
