By Megan Armitage in Paris.

Toni Shaw pushed through a lingering back injury to return to Paralympic finalist status in Paris.

The 21-year-old from Aberdeen touched the wall in a time of 4:48.44s in the S9 400m freestyle at La Defense Arena, her favoured event and the one she won bronze in three years ago at Tokyo 2020.

But the swimmer's preparation was less than ideal after she revealed that a stress injury in her back left hampered her season in the pool ahead of a second Games in Paris and noted the first major injury of her young career.

Despite her injury struggles, the University of Aberdeen swimmer came into the French capital still hungry to repeat her Tokyo efforts but fell just short in the end with fifth place.

"Obviously I'm a bit disappointed as it wasn't the swim that I wanted but I was injured at the start of this year and coming back from that has been hard, so I've just got to be proud that I have swum here," she said.

"I had hurt my back, so I've been trying to get back from that during preparation.

"I'm hoping to just swim fast in the mornings and try to make the final in my other events.

"The 400m is my main event and the other two are a bit different so I just need to see what happens."

Shaw was in contention for bronze for the majority of the race, in line with three other swimmers that were vying for the podium place, but it ultimately went to Italy's Vittoria Bianco.

Hungary's Zsofia Konkoly lead from the front of the pool to take gold with Australia's Lakeisha Patterson in silver.

Shaw still has two events still to come in Paris with the S9 100m freestyle and SM9 200m individual medley and the Scot revealed that she was excited to jump in the roaring pool at La Defense twice more this Games with aims to reach a further two finals.

And with the support of her family in the crowd after they were unable to watch her storm to bronze in Tokyo, Shaw admitted that she is still living the dream in Paris.

"I still love swimming and being a part of the team," she said. "Everyone is so nice and I'm going to be cheering on for the next few days and to see my best friends go and smash it will be really special.

"There's a lot more excitement at this one with the crowd and I saw my family when I finished my race which was really special.

"It's just so different to Tokyo. It's amazing."

The Scot will now turn her attention to cheering on University of Aberdeen teammate Faye Rogers who will compete in the women's S10 100m freestyle on the fourth day of competition. Rogers stormed onto the international scene at the Para Swimming World Championships in 2023 with three medals.

And Shaw noted that there could be more silverware on the horizon for her teammate, as well as close friend and roommate Maisie Summers Newton, who is looking to successfully defend her two titles from Tokyo 2020 in Paris.

"I think there will be some gold medals coming in fingers crossed with Maisie and Faye," she said.

"I've been on a team with Maisie since 2017 and she's always my roommate and I just know that she will absolutely smash it.

"Whilst Faye is my training partner back in Aberdeen and to have a friend in a training partner is really nice."

Aldi are proud Official Partners of Team GB & ParalympicsGB, supporting all athletes through to Paris 2024.