Alice Tai claims second gold of Paris 2024 Paralympics

By Milly McEvoy in Paris

Alice Tai is nearing the times she set prior to choosing to have her leg amputated after claiming her second gold of the Games.

The Poole native knocked 0.6 seconds off her PB in the fastest swimming event there is – the 50m freestyle.

Tai had her right leg amputated to relieve of pain two years ago, and the decision has paid dividends as she won a fourth medal of Paris 2024.

“That was a 0.6 PB post amputation, which is insane on a 50m – over half a second,” said Tai, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games. “A huge PB. I’m still processing it.

“This is more than I expected. Every swim has been a PB since my amputation, I’m getting close to my old times.

“I didn’t think I’d be getting back down to sub-30 for another year, we’ve only been working on my dive for four months.

“It’s still pretty new and I’m still figuring it out. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome, I have the full set and an extra gold, which is pretty cool, and another race to go - but I’ll have a day off tomorrow.”

Tai won silver in the women’s 400m freestyle yesterday, adding to her gold and bronze from earlier in the Games.

The 25-year-old has had to rebuild her stroke since her amputation, using a different freestyle stroke for the 50m compared to the 400m, which has added to the process of returning to her former heights.

Tai won two medals at Rio 2016 before being forced to miss Tokyo with injury that ultimately led to her decision to amputate her leg.

She has one event still to come, the 100m butterfly on Saturday evening to round out a Games Tai could only have dreamed of even a few weeks ago.

Tai said: “It’s crazy. When I first got back in the pool, I called my coach as I was swimming really slowly, my times were really off.

“I called him thinking I was going to have to retire. I was 20 seconds off in a 100m - turns out I was swimming in a 33m pool, not a 25m pool, and I hadn’t realised - I was doing 30 per cent more distance than I was meant to.

“I can’t believe I’m getting back towards those times, my backstroke has dropped almost a whole second, my 50 free I’ve knocked 0.6 seconds off my best time since amputation, my medley I swam faster than when I had two legs.

“Training is clearly going very well. A lot of it has been about getting balance back post-amputation, some strokes came more naturally. We’ve had to figure out different ways to swim it in training.

“I definitely feel like things have changed from that perspective. The ceiling is getting higher, I’m constantly striving to go faster.

“Bring it on, I want to keep improving and I’m excited to see what I can do next season.”

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