Blake Cochrane, is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. He won two gold medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics where he won a silver medal.
His parents enrolled him in swimming in an effort to alleviate his asthma. He began swimming competitively at age 16. It was not until his selection by Swimming Australia as an AWD team competitor at the Arafura Games in Darwin, 2007, that his potential was realised. Cochrane went on to win a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Games in the Men's 100 m Breaststroke SB7 event. After Beijing 2008, Cochrane continued to perform strongly in the pool. He was one of the stars of the 2009 World Short Course Championships, winning two gold medals and one silver. He has been honoured with Blue awards by both University of Queensland, 2010 and the University of the Sunshine Coast, 2011. He blitzed the field at the 2011 Para Pan Pacific Championships in Canada, winning five gold medals and breaking the world record in the 100m breaststroke. 2010 was an especially prolific year for Blake as he won gold in the 100m breaststroke at the World Championships, before snaring a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. During the 2012 Australian Swimming Nationals he again set a new world record in the 100m breaststroke final. Competing at the 2012 London Games, he competed in five events and won two gold medals in the Men's 100 m Breaststroke SB7 and Men's 4 × 100 m Freestyle 34 points. At the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, he broke the world record in winning the gold medal in the Men's 100 m Breaststroke SB7. Competing at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, he won the silver medal in the Men's 100 m Breaststroke SB7 and a bronze medal in the Men's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay 34 points. He finished fourth in Men's 4 × 100 m Medley Relay 34pts, fifth in the Men's 50m Freestyle S8 and Men's 100m Freestyle S8. In 2015, he was coached by Jan Cameron at the University of the Sunshine Coast. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, he won the silver medal in Men's 100 m Breaststroke SB7. He also competed in Men's 4 × 100 m Freestyle and finished fifth, seventh in Men's 400m Freestyle S8 but didn't progress to the finals in Men's 50m Freestyle S8 and Men's 100m Freestyle S8. In preparation for Rio, Cochrane coaches states “Blake never thought he had any disability... and never looked back.” At the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London, he won the bronze medal in the Men's 100 m Breaststroke SB7. in 2019, he is coached by Nathan Doyle at USC Spartans.
Recognition
In 2011, he was a nominee for The Age's Sport Performer Award in the Performer with a Disability category. In 2011, he won Swimming Australia’s Swimmer with a Disability of the Year Award. He has been awarded the 'Graham Sherman Sunshine Coast Senior Sports Star of the Year' for 2013. He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2014 Australia Day Honours "for service to sport as a Gold Medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games."
