Alice Tai has become one of the standout athletes at the Paralympics thus far, to her own surprise. The British champion swimmer has collected two golds, one silver and one bronze medal with still one event to be competed in – the 100m butterfly this coming Saturday.
If anyone had predicted this extraordinary journey to her in 2022, chances are she would’ve simply laughed it off as too far-fetched. It was in this year she had her right leg amputated below the knee due to the extreme discomfort caused by a clubfoot she had been born with.
This led to the 25-year-old essentially starting from scratch with her swimming training. She experienced moments of doubt, questioning whether she’d ever regain her previous form, which had won her bronze in Rio along with several global titles previously. She even considered retiring, discouraged by her performance during her initial comeback.
However, there’s a twist. She later discovered she was practising in a 33m pool, rather than the 25m one she was accustomed to. Naturally, this meant she was covering 30% more distance than she had assumed. In retrospect, she must be relieved she didn’t hang up her swim cap!
In other news, British cyclist Archie Atkinson had a spot of hard luck in his 4000m individual pursuit event. Just two laps from victory with a comfortable six-second lead over Slovakia’s Jozef Metelka, intrigue struck and Atkinson crashed out, ultimately having to contend with a silver medal.
The candid interview conducted post-race with Metelka emerged as potentially the most straightforward one by any gold-winning Paralympian in these current games.
Metelka admitted, with no small measure of surprise, that his luck must have stretched to the Eiffel Tower and back, considering he was simply outclassed by his opponent. In his words, the gap between his performance and his rival’s was almost six seconds – not something one easily recovers from. But when Archie took a spill, luck stepped in, and Metelka properly credited his win to this fortuitous event, whilst humorously quipping that the last time such an occurrence might have happened was possibly during the era of the T-Rex.
Cyprus was buzzing with excitement over the achievements of Karolina Pelendritou at her sixth Paralympics event, who managed to snag a bronze for the SB11 100m breaststroke on a Thursday evening. The response from Cypriot Paralympics Committee was one of pure euphoria. The country hailed Karolina, recognising her accomplishments and marvelling at how her name was reverently announced in a stadium brimming with spectators at La Defense Arena. Karolina’s strength, focus and talent, capped off with her resilient spirit, had the world acknowledging her.
A Paralympian cyclist, Damien Vereker, 44 years of age, amusingly described his cohort as a unique set, always craving more even in difficult conditions. After finishing eighth in the gruelling Road Race alongside Mitchell McLaughlin, he avowed to return for another round when the Games reconvene in LA.
Katie-George Dunlevy has an impressive Paralympic medal haul: four gold and four silver medals – quite an illustrious career, indeed.
After a series of defeats during the Paralympic semi-finals in 2004, 2008, 2016 and 2020, British wheelchair basketball player Terry Bywater was finally rewarded with a joyous victory. Britain defeated Germany securing a position in the final against the United States. Reflecting on the period of setbacks prior to the Games, Bywater analogised his preceding failures to those of Harry Kane in some jest, expressing he had no desire to become the synonymous example of wheelchair basketball battles lost.