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(CNN) — Australian Alexa Leary has defied the odds for the second time this week, winning an individual Paralympic gold in the 100m S9 freestyle just days after helping her team win in the mixed 4x100m medley relay 34 points.
Leary’s swim of 59.53 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle S9 final on Wednesday broke the world record of 59.60 seconds she had set just hours before in the heats.
“I really just wanted to break the world record – and I did. I did it this morning, but tonight was my show,” 23-year-old Leary said, according to Paralympics Australia.
Just three years ago, Leary, who was a budding triathlete, was involved in a near-fatal cycling accident at 70 kilometers per hour (nearly 43.5 mph), which saw her suffer major brain damage, blood clots and several broken bones.
“When I was in ICU, my dad called in a big time fortune teller and paid her, like a lot, to see if I’m going to survive nine brain operations and things,” she told CNN affiliate Nine News after her 100m final.
“And she said ‘Lex wants to walk and talk and she wants to go to the Paralympics,’ she said it to my dad.
“They never told me, but when I got out of hospital, I was like, ‘I want to swim,’ and my mom and dad were like, ‘Oh my goodness, just what the fortune teller said.’”
After spending over 100 days in hospital and learning to walk and talk again, Leary pursued swimming and, within two years, was representing Australia at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships.
The swimmer said: “It’s a miracle that I’m living, and I’m walking and I’m talking. I was told that I never would three years ago, and I’ve just come so far.
She added: “My family is the reason why I’m here, and they’re up there [in the stands] looking at me.”
Her mother Belinda, paid tribute to her daughter, telling Nine News: “She’s the same girl [post-accident], but everything’s heightened, but all she ever wanted was to show people that anything is possible.”
“And what she’s been through over the last three years, her thing is with a TBI [traumatic brain injury] anything is possible,” she added.
The-CNN-Wire
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