Swimmer Jessica-Jane Applegate, who has Asperger’s syndrome and won a gold medal at this year’s Paralympic Games, is on the 10-name shortlist for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.
Applegate took the 200m swimming gold medal for Great Britain in the women’s S14 freestyle final in a Paralympic record time of 2 minutes 12.63 seconds, ahead of Australian Taylor Corry.
In the race, Applegate was third at the final turn, before overhauling her rivals in the last 50 metres to touch home first.
The 16-year-old, who swims for the City of Norwich club, also finished fourth in the 100m backstroke at the Games.
Additionally, Applegate has set 35 British disability swimming records during the past year and is unbeaten for 18 months in the 200m freestyle in both multi-classification events and her own S14 classification.
Applegate faces competition from other up-and-coming names from the world of sport including: Olympic gymnast Rebecca Tunney; Josef Craig, the youngest Paralympic gold medallist at London 2012 who won the 400m freestyle S7 final, and windsurfer Saskia Sills, a multiple youth world champion in sailing.
The Young Sports Personality shortlist was drawn up from nominations made by a panel of judges chaired by BBC Sport’s John Inverdale. As well as compiling the shortlist, the panel choose their top three and their winner by secret ballot.
The top 3 will be announced in mid-December and the winner will be announced live at the Sports Personality of the Year ceremony on Sunday, December 16.
