Dedekind was awarded a Sporting Full Blue at Grffith University whilst studying a Bachelor of Communications.[8]
Dedekind's motto is "If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you".[9]
Sporting career
Dedekind competes in swimming and goalball. In swimming, she is classified as S13.
Dedekind took up goalball in 2012 after attending a 'come and try' day. At the 2012, Australian Goalball Championships in Melbourne, she was awarded the title 'Best Defensive Junior Player'[4] She was a member of the winning team at the 2013 Australian Invitational Cup in Sydney.[9]
Dedekind took up swimming at an early age with her twin brother, but did not start competing until 2012.[4] At the 2015 Swimming Queensland Sprint Championships, she was awarded the 'Swimmer of the Meet' award for swimmers with a disability.[4] In 2015, she won three gold and five silver medals at the 2015 SSA Pacific School Games. At 2016 Australian Swimming Championships, she won the bronze medal in the women's 200 m freestyle and finished fifth women's 50 m backstroke and women's 50 m butterfly.[4] She is a member of the UQ Swim Club and was coached by David Heyden.[4][10]
In 2016, Dedekind was selected to represent Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.[11] She competed in four events and achieved one podium finish. She won a bronze medal in the women's 100 m backstroke S13. She achieved seventh in 400 m freestyle S13.[12] but didn't progress to the finals in 50 m freestyle S13,[13] 100 m freestyle S13 and 100 m freestyle S13.[14]
In August 2018 at the Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships in Cairns, Queensland, just before her seventeenth birthday, Dedekind took gold with her fastest competitive time for the 100 m backstroke.[15] She also achieved bronze in the women’s 200 m individual medley for the SM12/13 classification, and silver in the 400 m freestyle S13.
Dedekind is a member of the Australian Dolphins swim team. She was coached by Nathan Doyle while preparing for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.[6][17] At the games, Dedekind won a bronze medal in the Women's 100 m backstroke S13 with a time of 1:06.49, after achieving a personal best time of 1:07.38 in the Heats. She also won a bronze medal competing in the Women's 400 m freestyle S13.[18][19] Her time of 4:35.87 was 12 seconds behind the winner, Anna Stetsenko, of Ukraine. Dedekind also competed in the 50 m freestyle S13 where she qualified for the finals but could only manage fourth in the final.[20]
At the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships, Madeira, Dedekind won three medals - gold in the Women's 50 m Freestyle S13 and silver in the Women's 100 m Backstroke S13 and Women's 400 m Freestyle S13.[21]
About June 2022, Dedekind changed clubs from SC Spartans with coach Nathan Doyle to the Yeronga Park Swim Club with coaches Robert van der Zant and Kate Sparkes.[24]
