Daphne Hilton

Daphne Ceeney

Daphne Hilton (née Ceeney) in 2012
Personal information
Full name	Daphne Jean Hilton
Nationality	Australia
Born	7 January 1934
Died	25 July 2016(2016-07-25) (aged 82)
Medal record Swimming Paralympic Games 1960 Rome Women's 50 m Breaststroke complete class 5 1960 Rome Women's 50 m Crawl complete class 5 1964 Tokyo Women's 50 m Freestyle Prone complete class 5 1964 Tokyo Women's 50 m Freestyle Supine cauda equina 1968 Tel Aviv Women's 50 m Freestyle class 5 (cauda equina) Athletics Paralympic Games 1960 Rome Women's Club Throw Class C 1960 Rome Women's Javelin C 1960 Rome Women's Shot Put C 1968 Tel Aviv Women's 60 m Wheelchair C 1968 Tel Aviv Women's Pentathlon special class Archery Paralympic Games 1960 Rome Women's St. Nicholas Round open 1964 Tokyo Women's Albion Round open Women's table tennis Paralympic Games 1964 Tokyo Women's Doubles C Women's fencing Paralympic Games 1964 Tokyo Women's Foil Individual

Daphne Jean Hilton (née Ceeney; 7 January 1934 – 25 July 2016) was an Australian Paralympic competitor. She was the first Australian woman to compete at the Paralympic Games. She won fourteen medals in three Paralympics in archery, athletics, fencing, swimming, and table tennis from 1960 to 1968.

Ceeney was born in the New South Wales town of Harden-Murrumburrah on 7 January 1934, as the eldest of four children. She became a paraplegic after a horse-riding accident in 1951 at the age of 17. She spent 9 months in Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital before returning to Murrumburrah. Eight years after the accident, she moved to Sydney where she spent six months at the Cherrywood Rehabilitation Centre and then one year at Mt Wilga Rehabilitation Hospital. While living at the rehabilitation hospital, she developed her sporting ability and skills. She was selected as Australia's only female athlete at the 1960 Rome Paralympics.

In 1967, she married Frank Hilton, whom she had met at the Northern Archers Club. She worked as a shorthand typist until the birth of her twin girls, Nichole and Rachael, in 1970. She was at the Royal North Shore Hospital for six months before the delivery, and was the first person with paraplegia to give birth to twins in Australia; a thesis was written about her pregnancy and birth. She officially opened the athlete's village at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Paralympics, and was part of the 2000 Paralympic torch relay. In August 2012, she donated a set of medals from the 1960 Games and three Australian team blazers to the Australian Paralympic Committee. She died on 25 July 2016 at the age of 82.

Ceeney was the only Australian female competitor at the inaugural 1960 Rome Games. At the games, she won two gold medals in the Women's 50 m Breaststroke complete class 5 and Women's 50 m Crawl complete class 5 events, three silver medals in the Women's St. Nicholas Round open in archery, Women's Club Throw C, and Women's Javelin C events, and a bronze medal in the Women's Shot Put C event.

She won 11 gold medals at the 1962 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Perth, Western Australia.