Paralympic athletes Ollie Hynd MBE and Charlotte Henshaw and their coach Glenn Smith were presented with the honour of Freedom of the district at a presentation ceremony.
165 people attended the presentation, which consisted of a Freedom pageant ceremony with procession into the Civic Quarter at the Civic Centre with the Mace carried by Cllr David Smith, who is Chairman of the Charter Trustees. There was then a fanfare, provided by the Pleasley Colliery Welfare Band, champagne reception, speeches and live entertainment.
Freedom of the Mansfield district is the highest honour the town can give to its citizens and has been awarded on only a few occasions since 1974. Among its more historic features is that those granted it are allowed to herd sheep through the town.
Among previous recipients have been Ollie Hynd's brother, Sam, also a successful Paralympic swimmer, and Mansfield’s Olympic champion swimmer Rebecca Adlington in 2008.
Other recipients have been the Cantamus Girls Choir, who gained a gold medal at the 2006 Choir Olympics in China, and side-car world champions Tom and Ben Birchall.
Paralympic swimming stars Ollie Hynd MBE and Charlotte Henshaw received the Freedom of the district after their successes at the Paralympic Games in Rio in September when they brought home four medals.
The swimmers have been coached by Mansfield District Council coach and Swimming Development Officer, Glenn Smith, for more than a decade and his contribution to their success and the success of other local swimmers he has trained was also recognised by granting him the Freedom of the District of Mansfield.
As well as this year's Paralympic success, Charlotte has won medals at World and European level, and was crowned a European champion in 2009, and again in 2016, and is a current European record holder.
Ollie's two golds and a silver made him the most decorated male GB swimmer at the Rio Paralympic games.
His breakthrough was in 2011 when he won medals at the European Championships. In 2012 he claimed a gold, silver and bronze medal at the London Paralympics and later that year was awarded an MBE by the Queen for services to Disability Sport.
He has since won a "Grand Slam" of Paralympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles and holds the current world record for the S8 400m Freestyle and SM8 200m Individual Medley.
Mansfield District Council’s Executive Mayor, Kate Allsop, who presented the trio with their scrolls, said: “The Freedom of the district is an honour that has been awarded to special individuals and groups on only a few occasions for the past century and is one that is only given to those whose achievements have been great.
“We are very proud to have such talented individuals from our district and wanted to congratulate them by giving them this ceremony celebration.”