Background
Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales in 1995 to Mark and Wendy Thomas.
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Jack Thomas
Edit ProfileEducation
He was educated at Morriston Comprehensive.
Career
Thomas competes in the S14 classification for swimmers with intellectual disabilities, mainly freestyle and backstroke preferring shorter distances. In 2014 he competed at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow representing Wales and took the bronze medal in the 200m freestyle S14. When Jack was two years old he was diagnosed as having learning difficulties.
In 2013 Thomas was selected to compete at his first major tournament for the Great Britain.
He came fifth in the 100m backstroke S14 and sixth 200m individual medley SM14. There he competed in the 200m freestyle S14, the first event for swimmers with a learning disability.
In the finals Thomas took bronze with a time of 2:01.27, behind Australia"s Daniel Fox and England"s Thomas Hamer. A month later he was back in the Great Britain team, this time travelling to Eindhoven to take part in the 2014 IPC Swimming European Championships.
In Eindhoven Thomas was entered into three events the 100m backstroke, 200m freestyle S14 and the 200m individual medley SM14.
A wrist injury rules Thomas out of the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow.
Achievements
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As he matured he showed promise as a competitive swimmer and won several junior competitions but the decision made by the IPC, after a controversy at the 200 Summer Paralympics meant a competitive ban on all events for athletes with an intellectual disability, saw him unable to compete at meets for disabled swimmers. The next year he was selected to play for Wales at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland. He won bronze in the 50m backstroke and silver in the medley and freestyle.
