[1] In 1997, aged 22, Maroney was the first woman and second person to swim the 180 km (110 mi) Florida Straits from Cuba to the United States with a shark cage.
In 1998 she swam a record 197 km (122 mi) from Mexico to Cuba, covering the longest distance at the time swum without flippers in open sea.
[2] She was born with cerebral palsy, which she kept secret until 2007, when she and her mother Pauline revealed it on the TV talk show Enough Rope.
After turning 13, she came to realise that she could do long swims, and after failing to graduate from high school she pursued her vocation.
She was recognised as a long-distance swimmer in 1989 when she achieved third place in the Australian Marathon Swimming Championship for Women, aged 14.
That same year she also broke the speed record for swimming the English Channel, with the help of her mentor Des Renford.
She also received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the New South Wales Government in 1997; the same year she was inducted into the International Hall of Fame for her accomplishments.