Australian swimmer Meg Harris, who also happens to be hearing impaired, was the second fastest woman in the pool at the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning individual silver in the 50 metres freestyle, plus team gold and silver medals. She speaks to HPA about the barriers she’s overcome to become an elite athlete.
Meg Harris has a message for children with hearing loss; you don’t have to do this alone. If you have a goal, there are people who will help you get to where you want to go.
Harris, 22, is the epitome of this message, having been diagnosed with moderate hearing loss in both ears from nerve damage at age six but going on to become a world record holder, multi Olympic and Commonwealth Games medallist, world champion and a recipient of the Order of Australia Medal (OAM).
Her many achievements stem from hard work, persistence and skill but she humbly credits much of her success to the support she has had.
“I would love to believe I am a role model to kids and athletes out there,” she says. “However, I don’t believe it’s an individual achievement. I wouldn’t be where I am without so many people in my life.
“My message to children who have a hearing impairment is you don’t have to do this alone. If you have a goal or anything you want to achieve, there are people out there who will help you get to where you want to go.
“It may be your parents, a teacher, someone you meet along the way; there will always be people who will help you on your journey not just in sport but life. Use it.”
Harris stunned the swimming world – and even herself if you saw the television footage – with a silver medal in the women’s 50m freestyle at the Paris Olympic Games. She touched the wall with a personal best time of 23.97 seconds to snatch silver behind world record holder, Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem.
It was Harris’s first individual Olympic medal and followed a back-to-back (with the Tokyo Olympics) gold medal-winning 4x100m women’s freestyle relay, and silver in the 4×100 women’s medley relay.
Tokyo in 2020 was her Olympic debut where at age 19 she claimed her first gold in the 4x100m women’s freestyle relay and a bronze in the 4×200.
At the 2022 World Championships, she nabbed a gold in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay, a bronze in the 50m women’s freestyle and a silver in the mixed medley 50m relay.
Commonwealth Games medals include a silver in 2022 in the 50m women’s freestyle and mixed 4x100m freestyle relay followed by gold and a world record in the 2023 World Championships for the 4×100 women’s freestyle relay.
Harris was one of seven Deaf or hearing-impaired athletes at the Paris Olympic Games including fellow Aussie, Matildas goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold, now an ambassador for Audika.
British swimmer Suzanna Hext also took part in the 2024 Paralympics wearing her cochlear implant thanks to a rule change in 2023 enabling her to wear the implant while racing. And this year is the 100th anniversary of the Deaflympics, which will be in Tokyo in November 2025. These are a Deaf version of the Olympic Games solely for hearing impaired people run by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf.
Harris applauds all this representation.
“The fact that it is being acknowledged and shown to young kids that anything is possible and it’s not something that you have to be ashamed of goes a long way,” she says.
She has accepted her hearing impairment now but that wasn’t always the case at primary school when she went for six years without wearing her hearing aids consistently.
“It’s unsure whether I was born with hearing loss or developed it through a virus when I was young. I was diagnosed through a school test in grade one,” she recalls. “I was fitted with hearing aids almost immediately. “After finding out I went to Hearing Australia and they ran more tests just to confirm. However, I didn’t start wearing them consistently until I was around 12 – I wanted to fit in.”
Harris says she relies heavily on lip reading especially in loud situations which she picked up by habit. “Because of this I really struggled with meeting new people during the pandemic due to masks.”
Born in Wodonga, Victoria and raised in Mackay, Queensland, she has been swimming and lifesaving since age three and had her passion for swimming ignited at age five when her mother became a swim teacher.
She has been with Hearing Australia since diagnosis and the organisation has provided all her hearing aids which she says have been crucial in her personal and swimming journey. She can Bluetooth her hearing aids to her phone, receive her phone-calls through them and adjust their sound on her phone.
“I don’t use ear plugs or ear moulds when swimming as I need what hearing I have left in the pool and I can still hear in the water without my hearing aids. It’s natural to me because I haven’t known anything different.
“I didn’t realise how much I was missing out on until I started wearing hearing aids consistently in high school. They have also helped -when on swim camps and especially during media post racing, however in the pool I have never known the difference as I can’t wear them to swim.”
She doesn’t however believe being partially deaf has created barriers to her swimming.
“I wouldn’t say it’s created barriers although I do struggle sometimes when travelling using extra energy when in new situations trying to hear,” Harris says. “But I am lucky I have always been surrounded by people who have gone above and beyond to make sure I’m comfortable and am not missing out on anything.
“I can hear the starters gun in most situations as the crowd is quiet at this point. However, growing up I had to work on my reaction time as I was trying so hard to hear it, I was more focused on listening then getting off the block – it wasn’t one natural movement.
“The most challenging part for me is the whistle to get on the blocks and “take your marks” when the crowd is still making noise as sometimes it’s not as loud as the starter gun.”
She does better when she knows a person and how they talk, making it easier to lipread or make out what they’re saying. When it comes to her coach and team-mates talking, she doesn’t feel she’s missing out on much.
“My coach likes to use hand signals too. With media, I have so many people that have helped me, it ranges from answering the question for me if they can tell I’m struggling to hear without making a big deal or bringing my hearing aids to me post-race. I really am so lucky that I am surrounded by people who go above and beyond for me.”
Harris says she has had time to reflect on what an incredible experience the Olympic Games in Paris was.
“The races have sunk in and the success I had this year was not one I thought I was going to get out of this season. I could not be more proud and grateful for everyone around me.
“In terms of the Olympics experience as a whole, that will take a lot longer to sink in, just trying to comprehend the scale of how much impact the Olympics had on people and to be a part of that history and see the amount of support we had not only from our country but the world, it’s crazy and not something I could’ve ever imagined.”
Harris is also studying nursing, is cofounder of a clothing brand, a project32 (athlete development program) athlete and chief inspiration officer at Auswide Bank.
The Australian Olympic Committee paid tribute to her, saying: “Meg is partially deaf but, like Cindy-Lu Fitzpatrick before her, she continues to inspire young children to follow their dreams.”
Fitzpatrick, 59, now Cindy-Lu Bailey OAM, is a Deaf swimmer who represented Australia in the 1982 and 1986 Commonwealth Games and Deaflympics.
She is considered the most decorated woman in Deaflympics history with a record haul of 29 medals and is one of Australia’s greatest swimmers despite not being able to hear the starters gun.
Like Harris, she also received the Order of Australia Medal in 1985 for services to swimming.
Programs helping Deaf children
Both champions have no doubt inspired hearing-impaired children and now Deaf Children Australia (DCA) has stepped in to make it easier for coaches and clubs to assist Deaf and hard of hearing children. DCA, a not-for-profit organisation that champions the growth and social inclusion of Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children and young people, has launched two innovative programs to assist their participation.
DCA’s Blueprint, which launched in June 2024, aims to promote inclusion of DHH children and young people in mainstream recreational and sporting clubs.
This range of free resources supports clubs, groups and community organisations to feel empowered and confident to support DHH children. Funded through the Department of Social Services it provides coaches, teachers and parents information to assist inclusion in activities and ensure children’s participation is as enjoyable as their hearing peers.
Resources include more than 100 sports-specific Auslan signs on video.
DCA project officer Ms Sanonu Robertson says 121 people registered for its launch webinars. They included coaches, club presidents and parents from a wide range of organisations ranging from tennis to martial arts, swimming, tae kwon do, dance, soccer, athletics, hockey, football, teeball, golf, judo, astronomy, coding, chess, circus, all abilities activities , basketball and kids pilates.
“More than 60 Blueprint toolkits are in circulation and we’ve received fantastic feedback from clubs about its practicality and application in various settings,” she says, adding a webinar will take place in November.
“We have also received insight from early educators and primary/high school teachers who have expressed interest in the resources and feel they would be appropriate and relevant to a classroom setting.”
One little athletics committee member said it was the first time in nine years they had seen such professional, user friendly and well researched inclusion resources. A basketball coach added: “The kit is simple but effective. I love the visual resources to encourage inclusive communication. The highlight is the pocket reference – it’s handy, convenient and is exactly what it says it is – for your pocket.”
DCA’s Blueprint followed a DCA survey which found parents of DHH children were concerned about their children’s capacity to integrate into everyday sporting and recreational activities. Parents could see the benefit of their child being involved with sports, music and other recreational activities, providing a pathway to make friends.
A second survey found 77% of respondents revealed their communities had limited knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with a DHH child. This feedback prompted the DCA team to create the program to help clubs and organisations ‘lead by example’, building their skills and confidence to include DHH children in everyday sports and activities.
Puggles Swim for children with hearing loss
A similar survey several years ago provided a glimpse into the struggles faced by families with DHH children when it came to swimming. Many parents expressed fears about their child’s safety in the water and others voiced frustration over a lack of inclusive swim programs.
As a result, DCA launched Puggles Swim in 2022, the nation’s first swim program tailored to the unique communication requirements of DHH children. It was the result of a collaboration with AUSTSWIM and Swim Coaches and Teachers Australia, leading swim course developers, instructors, and elite Deaf swimmers, to create an interactive online course. The Royal Life Saving Society – Australia has since endorsed it.
Profoundly Deaf competitive swimmer and cochlear implant wearer, Mr Nick Layton was part of the steering committee during Puggles’ development. A former ambassador of the program, he remains supportive of its initiatives. Layton won five medals at the World Deaf Swimming Championships in Argentina, his first international event.
“Puggles now has a nationwide footprint with more than 1,100 accredited swim teachers completing the course in 302 swim schools across the nation which are listed in our online map,” Robertson adds.
The program teaches swim teachers pivotal skills of Auslan sign language, Deaf awareness and includes waterproof flashcards with Auslan signs. Ms Carol Webb, the mother of a Puggles swimmer says: “This program is so important to give confidence to parents that their child can communicate and learn and be water safe.”
As DCA says, winning is taking part. But also, imagine how inspired those little Puggles would have been seeing Meg Harris on the Olympic podium.
