Sport
15 March, 2026
Cardwell classifier a class act
JUNE Cotter has been recognised for 15 years of service as a para sport classifier, with the award presented at the 2026 Classifier Conference.
Mrs Cotter said the recognition came through Australian swimming classification and marked a broader acknowledgement of classifiers across the country.
“It’s an award for what they call an international classifier. And all the people in Australia got recognised the other night for the first time,” she said.
Mrs Cotter said she first became involved in classification after one of her swimmers, David Eade, struggled to access the system.
“Well, I had a swimmer, young David Eade, and he’d been with me and learned to swim when he was six,” she said.
“Then when he was 13, he said, I’m not swimming anymore. He and his mum came in crying to me and said, ‘he’ll never, ever win a medal. He doesn’t want to swim anymore.’
“So, I sent a letter off to Australian swimming, and they acted on it straight away... they sent me an email and said, ‘Well, if you go to Uni and do this course, you can become a classifier’. So, I did. I’ve been all over the world.”
Mrs Cotter said classification was important because “it makes it fairer for the athlete”.
In physical classification, she works alongside a medical classifier to assess swimmers both on land and in the water.
“The medical examiner does all the manipulation stuff, you know, what they can do with their body and all that sort of stuff,” she said.
“Then we take them out to the water, and I assess them in the water to see if I get the same as what the medical (classifier) did.
“So, it’s just to make it fair, because you’re different on land than you are in the water sometimes.”
Looking back over 15 years, Mrs Cotter said the greatest reward had been seeing what para-athletes could achieve.
“It gives them something to do, and it gives them a life,” she said.
Asked what the award meant personally, Mrs Cotter said: “(It) makes me feel great to watch them, and when I go and see them, to see what they can achieve with what they’ve got to use. It’s unbelievable.”
Mrs Cotter is continuing her work in the sport, travelling to New South Wales this weekend to help classify swimmers before heading to the Gold Coast for national classifications ahead of the national championships.
