Christie Raleigh Crossley

Personal information
Born	(1987-06-20) June 20, 1987 (age 37)
Home town	Toms River, New Jersey, U.S.
Sport
Sport	Paralympic swimming
Disability class	S9
Medal record Women's paralympic swimming Representing   United States World Championships 2023 Manchester 100 m backstroke S9

Christie Raleigh Crossley (born June 20, 1987) is an American Paralympic swimmer. She will represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.

Early life and education

Raleigh grew up playing several sports, including playing in the boy's leagues for basketball and baseball, where she was the only girl on the team. In middle school she made the decision to focus on swimming, with dreams of making the Olympic team. At Toms River High School South, she was a state champion and became the second freshman in state history to become the state record-holder in any swimming event. ^[1] She moved to Florida when she was 15 to attend Pine Crest School, where she was a four-time high school state champion in Florida. ^[2]

After graduating from Pine Crest, she received a scholarship to swim for Florida State University. She competed there for two years, earning multiple accolades including Athletic Coast Conference (ACC) Freshman of the Year, and two back-to-back National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) All-American honors. An opportunity arose to finish out her NCAA career at Auburn University. Instead, she got married, and three months later was pregnant with her first daughter. She then transferred to Rowan University where she won an NCAA Division III national title in the butterfly. ^{[3] [4]}

Career

On March 12, 2023, at the Citi Para Swimming World Series, Raleigh Crossley set a world record in the 50 metre backstroke S9 event with a time of 32.01. ^[5] She then represented the United States at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships, where she won a gold medal in the 100 metre backstroke S9 event. ^[6]

On June 30, 2024, she was named to team USA's roster to compete at the 2024 Summer Paralympics. ^[7]

Personal life

In 2007 Raleigh Crossley was hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street and suffered three herniated discs in her neck and one in her lower back. In 2008 she was involved in another accident where she was hit by a car as a pedestrian. The blunt force trauma triggered a non-cancerous tumor to start developing in her brain, and as a result she began to lose function on the left side of her body. ^[8]

On December 12, 2018, while on a ski trip with her family, her son picked up what he thought was a snowball and struck her in the head. The snowball was actually a ball of ice, and when it knocked her in the head she sustained a traumatic brain injury. She experienced paralysis on her left side due to the bleeding of a previously unknown blood tumor in her brain. On January 7, 2019, she had the tumor removed. ^{[3] [9]}

Raleigh Crossley is married and has three children. ^[10] They are non-binary using she/her and they/them pronouns. ^[3]

References