Arjola Trimi


Arjola Trimi is an Italian Paralympic swimmer competing in S4 classification events. She made her major international debut at the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal, where she won four medals. A year later she became European champion in her classification in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events. In 2015, she won her first World gold taking the 50m backstroke title at the World Games in Glasgow.

Personal history

Trimi was born in Milan, Italy. She has an acquired form of degenerative muscular condition which has resulted in quadriplegia and muscle contractions.

Swimming career

Trimi learnt to swim as a baby, but always saw it as a hobby that helped her relax. She took part in several sports, such as wheelchair basketball and athletics, but it was not until her medical condition worsened that she turned to swimming as a competitive event. She took up swimming competitively in 2013 and was initially classified as a S5 athlete; but was reclassified soon after as S4. That same year she was chosen to represent Italy at the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal. There she won four medals: silvers in the 50m freestyle and the 50m 4x50 freestyle relay, and bronze in both the 100m and 200m freestyle S4 races.
In 2014, she won her first senior international gold medals, becoming European champion in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events at the 2014 IPC Swimming European Championships in Eindhoven. A year later she was back in the Italian squad, this time in the World Championships in Glasgow. Trimi won two medals, a silver in the 50m Freestyle and gold in the 50m backstroke, making her World champion in the event.