Patterson started swimming at the age of three as part of her rehabilitation to overcome muscle stiffness. She is classified as an S8 swimmer. She initially trained under Steve Hadler at , Scarborough and Suellyn Fraser at the Bribie Island Aquatic Leisure Centre. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, she won the bronze medal in the Women's 100 m Freestyle S8. Competing at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, she won a gold medal in the Women's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay 34 points, silver medals in the Women's 50 m Freestyle S8 and Women's 4 × 100 m Medley Relay 34 points and bronze medals in the Women's 100 m Freestyle S8 and Women's 400 m Freestyle S8. She finished fifth in the Women's 100m Backstroke S8. In April 2016, she was selected as part of the national team for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. She won Australia's first gold medal of the Rio Paralympics in winning the Women's 400m Freestyle S8, she set a new World record, Paralympic record, and Oceania record of 4:40:33, slicing 0.11 seconds of the previous world record time set by her long-time idol, American Jessica Long, who came in second. She was a member of the team that won the gold medal in the Women's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay 34 points. Three silver medals were won in the Women's 50 m and 100m Freestyle S8 behind Maddison Elliott and the Women's 4 × 100 m Medley Relay 34 points. In reflection on competing at Rio 2016, Patterson says "If someone told me one year ago that this is where I'd be I would have said, 'no, this is a joke.'" But after winning her first gold medal against Jessica Long, she states "I knew I had to attack and go out hard and keep fighting for it, and I knew she was right behind me, so I just had to keep going forward." At the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London, she won the gold medal in the Women's 400 m Freestyle S9. In 2015, she was coached by Jan Cameron at the University of the Sunshine Coast Paralympic Training Centre. In early 2016, she joined the Lawnton Swim Club to train under coach Harley Connolly. In 2016, she is a Queensland Academy of Sport scholarship holder.
