Kingsley Bugarin

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Kingsley Haldane Bugarin, born on August 3, 1968, in Mount Lawley, Western Australia, is an Australian Paralympic swimmer who has vision impairment. He started swimming as a teenager at Swan Hills Swimming Club in Midvale and later trained at the UWA Aquatic Centre with Matt Brown.

Bugarin competed in five Paralympic Games from 1984 to 2000, winning five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals. He was one of Australia’s most successful Paralympians at the time and set a world record in the 200 m breaststroke for his class (S12) with a time of 2:34.08 in 1999.

Beyond the Paralympics, he earned many medals at world championships and other competitions, across strokes including breaststroke, medley, freestyle and butterfly. He trained with clubs such as Claremont Uni and Challenge Stadium during the late 1990s.

Bugarin has been honored with the Order of Australia (1997) for his Paralympic success, and the Australian Sports Medal (2000). He was inducted into the Western Australian Swimming Association Hall of Fame in 2008 and was named a Legend of the WA Swimming Association Hall of Fame in 2019. He is married to Indonesian triathlete Yanti Ardie (married in 2014) and works as an information technology consultant. Since retiring from top-level competition, he has continued to compete in open-water swimming and triathlons.