Anne Brunell

At the age of 13 years and 11 months, Currie qualified for the 1984 Summer Paralympic Games in New York City, New York, United States after breaking her personal best in the 100m freestyle by five seconds.[9] Currie won bronze in the final of the Women’s A1 100m freestyle, becoming the youngest Australian Paralympic medallist.[17] Nevertheless, Currie was surpassed by 13-year-old Maddison Elliot who won gold for Australia at the London, United Kingdom Summer Paralympic Games in 2012.[17] Currie remembers the 1984 Summer Paralympic Games as a “…huge turning point…” for herself as both a disabled individual and athlete as a variety of disabled peoples were represented.[9]

Currie competed at the 1986 FESPIC Games in Surakarta, Indonesia and won four gold medals, including a world record in the 100m breastroke.[18] Currie remembers the questionable water quality and the coach of the Australian Paralympic swim team at the time – Peter Carroll – informing swimmers to “…shut your mouth and swim” …[9] After her performance, Currie received an award under the National Disabled Athlete Award Scheme and was congratulated by the then Minister for Sport, Recreation and Tourism, Mr John Brown.[19] Currie received a monetary sum of $2,195 which was designed to assist elite disabled athletes in pursuing their sporting goals.[19]

Currie qualified for the 1988 Seoul, Korea Summer Paralympic Games. Since the 1940s, swimming classifications had been based on athletes’ medical conditions.[20] To encourage inclusiveness and respect towards different disabilities, the number of classifications for para-swimming increased during the 1980s.[20] At the 1988 Seoul, Korea Summer Paralympic Games, two pools had to be utilised to ensure that all events could proceed as 31 classifications now existed.[21] Organising events proved difficult as there was often an insufficient number of swimmers in each classification.[21] Currie qualified to compete in several individual events, however they were cancelled as they did not adhere to the mandate that each event must contain swimmers from at least five different countries.[9] Currie competed in the Women’s 4 x 100m medley relay which came in fourth, and the Women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay which won silver.[9] Currie has since claimed that she was not the only athlete affected by this classification system.[9]

Currie competed at the 1989 Kobe, Japan FESPIC Games. Currie became sick the night before her Women’s 100m freestyle final, however won gold in that event along with gold in the Women’s 50m freestyle and 200m freestyle.[9]

Currie qualified for the 1990 Assen, Netherlands World Championships and Games for the Disabled. Currie won gold medals in the Women’s 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and the 4 x 100m freestyle relay.[9] Currie broke world records in both the 50m and 100m freestyle events, achieving a personal best time of 44.81 seconds for the 50m freestyle.[22] Currie won silver in the Women’s 4 x 100m medley relay and fourth in the 200m and 800m freestyle events.[22]

Currie was named as Womens’ Captain of the Australian team and recalls that it was “…a great honour…’ as she was able to mentor and support younger disabled athletes.[9]

Currie qualified for the 1992 Barcelona, Spain Summer Paralympic Games. Before embarking to Barcelona, Currie was commended in an address to the Australian Paralympic Federation Luncheon in Melbourne, Victoria by Leader of the Opposition John Hewson on the 30 June 1992.[23] Hewson congratulated Currie for the physical barriers she had overcome and her contribution to Paralympic swimming.[23] These Games were the first to implement a classification system based upon function rather than type of disability.[24] The number of classifications dropped from 31 at the 1988 Seoul, Korea Paralympic Games to 10 at these Games.[21] This ensured that Paralympic sport became fair, not equal.[25] Currie was grouped into the S6 category which includes athletes with disabilities such as loss of two arms, short stature, and moderate coordination problems on one side of body . Currie won gold in the Women’s 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay S1 – S6, Women’s 200m Freestyle S6, Women’s 100m Freestyle S6 and bronze in the Women’s 50m Freestyle S6. Currie beat the world record in the Women’s 200m Freestyle S6 event by 6 seconds, finishing in 3 minutes and 11.14 seconds.[26] Currie was appointed Women’s Captain of the Australian team.[9]  

Currie officially retired from competitive swimming after these Games. She has later stated that:

“I'm sick of getting up at 4 am in the morning. I've achieved everything that I can possibly achieve in swimming. I had achieved my main goal which was to win gold medal world record at the Paralympics um and (I) did it three times… to me there was nothing more, I just sort of thought, 'Well I'm, I'm gonna go out on a high here’”.[9]

For her service to the Paralympics movement, Currie won a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1993 and was featured on the Queen’s Birthday Honour List on the 13 June 1993.[27]