Barton’s swimming sensation Alice Tai storms to Paralympic gold after amputation
BARTON’S Alice Tai MBE has returned to the top of the podium at the Paris 2024 Paralympics after an eight-year hiatus after deciding to have her leg amputated.
The Poole-born swimmer, who beat Adam Peaty to the 2019 British Swimming Athlete of the Year award, won Paralympic gold in backstroke in a games record time of one minute 09.06 seconds.
The win is all the more remarkable for the 25-year-old, who flew home from the 2016 Rio Olympics with a relay gold and an individual bronze at just 17, after missing the 2020 Olympic Games, held in 2021, because of Covid, after developing nerve damage in her elbows due to using crutches.
She was on top of the world then, winning six titles in the pre-Tokyo Olympics world championships held in London.
After making the courageous decision to have her foot amputated, she has now returned to the Paralympics to win gold.
Tai, who started the sport at age eight and joined the Seagulls Swimming Club in New Milton, won the women’s S8 100m backstroke, which was more than five seconds clear of silver in a Paralympic record.
The victory never seemed in doubt, with Tai dominating the race ahead of silver medallist Viktoriia Ishchiulova, a Russian competing as a Neutral Paralympic Athlete (NPA), with Germany’s Mira Jeanne Maack taking bronze.
The nine-time world champion, who is in a band called BLUSH! and hopes to release more songs later this year, said: “The last three years have been kind of crazy.
“A lot has happened in my personal life. Just being here, I feel like I’ve made myself proud and made everyone supporting me proud.
“It’s not been the easiest few years, so to come here and swim that time... I’m really, really happy. To get my first individual gold at the Paralympics is super, super special.”
Alice also enjoys doing art in her free time and recently graduated with a neuroscience degree.
The former Bournemouth Collegiate School pupil was born with bilateral talipes – or club feet – which led to 14 corrective surgeries before her 12th birthday.
Tai’s gold marked the end of a glorious 37-minute spell in which the Paralympics GB team eclipsed the medal rush experienced on Super Saturday in London in 2012.
Three golds, plus a silver and bronze for good measure, came seven minutes faster than the trio of athletics gold on that special night 12 years ago.
