Marayke Jonkers did Australia proud when she won two bronze medals at the Athens 2004 paralympic Games, now she hopes her inspirational story will inspire others to take up sport and follow their dreams.

The 24-year-old from Queensland's Sunshine Coast became paralysed in a car accident as a child, but has shown that with a positive attitude anything is possible.

Marayke has the world record for 100m butterfly, and has broken over 60 Australian records in breaststroke, individual medley, freestlye and butterfly.

In 2004 she graduated from university with a bachelor of social science,and achieved the high distiction grades. By 2006 she had a second degree, in communications for which she received a deans commendation for academic excellence.
Not wanting her brain to go ‘soggy’ with all the swimming, she is now working as a freelance writer.

All this while training for the Paralympics.

Marayke’s Paralympic dream began as a small child when she saw the Olympics on television, and was captivated by the idea of racing athletes from all over the world.

By age two she could swim across the pool unaided, represented Queensland at age 12 and went on to compete for Australia in New Zealand, America, Thailand, Germany, Holland, England, Canada, Argentina and Greece.

Marayke showed great courage deciding to backpack through Greece, Egypt and Europe after the Athens Games.

The five month adventure involved challenges ranging from getting wheelchair through the ruins of Pompeii in Italy
to skiing lessons in Switzerland and riding a camel at the great pyramids in Egypt.

A gifted motivational speaker, Marayke is in increasingly high demand by corporate audiences.

She was named the Queensland Young Achiever 2005 by the Premier.

After years of making the headlines for swimming, Marayke has her sights set on writing the headlines as a journalist. If the rest of her life is anything to go by, she
should be highly successful!