Amy Winters

Who is Amy Winters?

Amy Louise Winters, OAM is an arm amputee Australian Paralympic athlete. She won seven medals at three Paralympics including five gold medals.

She was born in Kempsey, New South Wales without her lower right arm. She has two older sisters. She attended Kempsey High School and after leaving school in 1995 worked for Kempsey Shire Council. Whilst in Kempsey, she was coached by Lloyd Smith. At the 1994 IPC Athletics World Championships in Berlin, she won silver medals in the Women's 100, and 200 m and long jump T45-46 events. She made her Paralympics debut as an 18-year old at the 1996 Atlanta Games, where she won a gold medal in the Women's 200 m T42-46 event, for which she received a Medal of the Order of Australia, and a bronze medal in the Women's 100 m T42-46 event. After the Atlanta Games, She moved to Sydney after she was offered a job with Westpac under the Paralympic Employment Program for elite athletes with disabilities. In Sydney she was coached by Col Wright. At the 1998 IPC Athletics World Championships in Birmingham, she won gold medals in the Women's 100 m and 200m T46 events.

At 2000 Sydney Games, she won two gold medals in the 100 m T46 and 200 m T46 events, and a bronze medal in the 400 m T46 event. She felt under enormous pressure going into the Sydney Games due to being the 200 m title holder from Atlanta. She said "“I did feel a lot of pressure, but the greatest pressure I felt was the pressure I put on myself. I remember before my final in the 200m, I felt like I was going to be physically sick. I’d never felt like that before. My usual mindset was ‘whatever happens happens." She won two more gold medals at the 2004 Athens Games in the 100 m and 200 m T46 events. She was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder in the lead up to the Athens Games and was coached by Iryna Dvoskina. She retired in 2005.