Career Biography

Career Biography

Lakeisha Patterson OAM, otherwise known as Lucky, has become Queensland’s very own Golden Girl. Patterson started swimming at the age of five as part of her rehabilitation to overcome muscle stiffness from her Cerebral Palsy left Hemiplegia. 

After falling in love with the water, it wasn't until Lucky and her family watched the London 2012 Paralympic Games on TV, that she became aware of Para Sport. Watching Australians and other people with similar abilities to her, swimming on the worlds biggest stage, winning medals and making their country proud, most definitely ignited a fire within her! This was the moment Lucky realized she could pursue her passion further. She decided right then and there that she too would be representing Australia at the next Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro four years later.

She wasn't yet sure how she would get there or where to even start, but she was so optimistic and determined to make it happen! Her swim coach at the time was super understanding and researched the process and what was needed to become classified in swimming, enabling her to compete. Once Lucky became classified there was no stopping her! She worked incredibly hard - increasing her training schedule, work ethic and focusing on external choices such as nutrition and recovery. 

She started competing nationally at 13 years old.  After one year of competing and rapid improvement she was announced on the Australian Junior Development Team at 14, for her potential to make the national team or even podium in the future. This was extremely exciting as it was proof the hard work was paying off. In between training, hard work, coach changes, medical appointments, massage and physio, were local, regional, and state championships were she was continually improving.

The next goal was gaining selection on the national team. The following year and more continual improvements, Lucky entered the 2014 Australian Swimming Championships which also doubled as the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships selection trials. This was her first nationals and she was quite nervous, yet excited to see where she measured compared to Australia's best para-swimmers. 

Lucky gave it everything and was selected onto the national Australian Swim Team to represent the country at the 2014 Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships in Pasadena, later in the year. Her dream was finally becoming a reality!  After initially missing out on the Commonwealth Games team marginally, Lucky got a late call up to join the team and become Australia's wild card with only two weeks until the games!

Nevertheless she was absolutely ecstatic. From coming last at her very first swim meet and many other times after that as well, the drive, persistence and passion to continually push her sore and at times battered body to the next level shun through to overcome all obstacles. From getting classified to making the Development Squad a year later, and then the national team one year after that, Lucky was fast approaching the world stage.

She made her international debut at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, being the youngest member on the Australian Swim Team for the games at 15 years old. Lucky went on to smash her personal best time and claim the bronze medal in the Women’s 100m Freestyle S8 (only event for her classification)! After the games, Patterson headed straight to Pasadena, California for the 2014 Pan-Pacific Para Swimming Championships where she collected a further five medals; 1 gold, 1 silver, and 4 bronze across multiple events.

Competing at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, she had another successful meet. She won a gold medal in the Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay 34 points, silver in the Women’s 50m Freestyle S8 and Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay 34 points, and bronze medals in the Women’s 100m and 400m Freestyle S8, as well as fifth in the Women’s 100m Backstroke S8. This was all progress in the lead up to her major goal of making the Paralympic team the following year. But her focus now shifted to not only making the team, but winning gold!

2016 proved a difficult time in the lead up to selection trials for the Games. Trying to balance being an elite athlete and student completing year 12, while keeping up with medical appointments and training full time, and problems with her coach at the time. Everything was adding up to immense pressure, questioning if swimming was still for her. Among other issues, her coach wanted her to quit school and focus purely on swimming. This was not an option for Lucky as she incredibly values the importance of education. With aspirations of becoming an Architect in the future, and being able to have a career and life after sport, quitting was not an option. 

Through this stressful period of doubt and uncertainty Lucky remembered the main reason she started swimming. Because she loved it. The feeling of complete ease, free to move and enjoy the peace of the water and it's healing powers. She was doing this for her, because she wanted to and wasn't going to let anyone stop her in the pursuit of reaching her goals.

She decided to do year 12 over two years, allowing her to focus and achieve her goals in the classroom and pool. With the reduced study load and subjects halved across the two years, she was able to focus on a couple of subjects at a time, with allocated time to study and extensions for assignments or exams while away. This also helped her focus on training and competition more without stressing over school and vice versa. 

To further her swimming journey and reach her ultimate goal of making the Rio Paralympic Games and winning an elusive gold medal, in early 2016 she relocated training programs and coaches. She joined the Lawnton Swim Club to train under coach Harley Connolly who was willing to invest in her and help her improve and achieve her goals, just nine weeks before the Australian Trials for the Paralympic Games. 

With only a few weeks with her new coach trying to build new relationships and adapt to a different training regime and intense workload, she had never worked so hard in her life, absolutely smashing her body past it's 'limitations'. She was ready to prove everyone wrong come trials. In April 2016, the risk was worth it as she was selected as part of the Australian Paralympic Team at 17 to compete at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Everything she had worked so hard for, pushing down barriers and expectations, had lead her to the first part of her major goal; GOLD! 

Her first event, at her first Paralympic Games on the first day of competition had her racing her favourite event; 400m Freestyle. Going into the event she was a bit nervous, yet excited and composed. Being ranked 2nd in the world at this point, and up against her idol and the raining World, Paralympic Champion and World Record holder, and easily one of the best Paralympic Swimmers in the world, she was the underdog. Not many people knew her name, nor expected anything special. But Lucky had other ideas. Everything she had overcome in her life had lead to this moment. She had done the work, now it was time to have the swim of her life.

One big deep breath before stepping up to the block, strong stance, when the starting gun went off she was in the water as fast as she could and up into her stroke ready to race. After the first 100m trailing the world record holder, she held her form pushing harder and longer, collecting the lead further and further with every tumble turn. In the final lap she was powering home to touch the wall as hard and as fast as she could. She smashed the wall and turned around to see a number one next to her name. Not only had she just become the Paralympic Champion and won Gold, she won Australia's first gold at the games, and did a five second PB. She set a new World, Paralympic, Oceania, Australian and Queensland record of 4:40.33, slicing 0.11 of a second off the previous world record set by her long time idol, who came in second.

Excitement was through the roof, proving that against all odds if you have a passion and goal in life, you can achieve anything with hard work, belief, courage and determination! The gold did not only signify a medal of colour, but all the hard work, countless days and nights grinding away to become the best version of herself, as well as all the support from everyone around her such as; friends and family never giving up on her pursuit to achieve her dreams, as well as her new coach willing to invest his time into shaping her to become the best version of herself, when she couldn't see it herself. 

At the games Lucky had 16 races including heats and finals, swimming 8 days of a 10 day program. A mammoth competition but competing fiercely, she came away with six medals from her first Paralympic Games! 2x gold and World Records in the 400m Freestyle S8 and 4x100m Freestyle Relay 34 points, 3x silver in the 4x100m Medley Relay 34 points, 50m and 100m Freestyle S8, and bronze in the 200m Individual Medley S8. After an astonishing games debut, Patterson came home as one of Australia's most decorated Paralympian's.

Following on from her debut Paralympic success, her focus shifted to more world meets in 2017. Lucky took part in the inaugural Para Swimming World Series, in the Indianapolis leg of the tour. At the meet she won five gold medals and was crowned the overall Junior Female Athlete Winner of the world series based on point scores. 

The focus after world series was the 2017 World Championships in Mexico City. Unfortunately due to the devastating earthquake that shook the town, the championships were cancelled and an alternate meet at the Canadian Open was introduced. In a competition purely for rankings, Lucky posted strong times and by the end of the year cemented number one world rankings in the 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m Freestyle S8, 200m Individual Medley SM8, number three for 100m Butterfly S8, and fourth for 100m Backstroke S8. 

2017 also saw Lucky brake two world records at the 2017 Queensland State Swimming Championships in the 100m and 200m Freestyle S8. All within 1 hour of the other! She was also crowned the Swimmer of the Session for the day, for her record breaking efforts, and Multi Class Swimmer of the Meet collecting 10x gold, 2x silver and 1x bronze medals across age and open events. 

Now with the 2018 season in full swing, another action packed year of competition has begun. The International season begun with Lucky competing at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April. Being able to compete for Australia yet again, but this time on home soil, was extra special. Lucky competed in the 50m Freestyle S8 and 100m Freestyle S9.

The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games broke many records before the games had even begun. Being the first games to incorporate the same amount of medals for both men and women, as well as hosting the largest para-sport program in commonwealth history to date! Whilst this is a huge improvement and step forward for inclusion, not every event, class or sport is still contested at the games. Therefore it was extra special to be able to have one event for her class (50m Free S8). Lucky was also able to swim up a classification in the 100m Free S9, providing she had achieved the qualifying time and was top 3 in Australia for that class, which she worked hard to achieve.

At the games Lucky raced the 100m Freestyle S9 on day four against a strong field of international competitors. She knew the race was going to be tough in a field of swimmers who are essentially stronger than her, but it was most definitely not impossible! Lucky went into the race with a positive mindset knowing that she had worked incredibly hard and all she could do was focus on herself and her race, which is what she did. In a very close field and nail biting finish, Lucky powered home to smash her PB by almost a second, unofficially brake her own world record for her class, and win the race and snatched the gold from the other S9 competitors!

Two days later Lucky kept her strong form throughout the 50m Freestyle S8, touching the wall in number one position ahead of two competitors from Canada. Being able to represent her country, in front of her country was something incredibly special. And to come away with 2 Gold medals from her 2 events wasn't bad either. Being able to share the dream with everyone along the way had just made the success so much sweeter. 

Now the focus shifts to trials in July for selection to the 2018 Pan-Pacific Para Swimming Championships in Cairns, Australia in August, before 2019 World Championships and onto Tokyo 2020. As they say, no rest for the wicked! 

international Competitions & medals