Article by Julian Linden, courtesy of the NT News.
Three years after she cheated death, Alexa Leary has just won her first Paralympic gold medal with a performance so stunning that it ranks up there with the very best from Ian Thorpe or Cate Campbell.
The new darling of the Dolphins Paralympic swim team, Leary showed the rest of the world just why the whole of Australia has fallen heads over heels in love with the bubbly Queenslander’s zest for life after she almost lost hers in a terrifying bike crash.
The ultimate fighter whose parents were told to get ready to say goodbye to their daughter because she may not survive, Leary teamed up with Jesse Aungles, Tim Hodge and Emily Beecroft to win Paralympic gold for Australia in the mixed medley relay.
Swimming the anchor leg, the 23-year-old dived in with the Aussies in fourth place, more than six seconds behind the Dutch, who picked a male to swim the closing freestyle leg and led comfortably.
The Aussies still looked to have no chance of winning the gold even when Leary clawed her way back to second place at the final turn for home but she kept fighting and somehow got herself in front in the final few strokes as the packed crowd a erupted in sheer astonishment at what they had just witnessed.
“I knew I had to catch him and overtake him,” Leary said.
“I was like, ‘that’s it. I’m going to have to just take this win. I have to.’
“He was actually a bit in front of me at 15 metres but I caught him. I had to, I just had to do that.
“What we’re doing is just incredible. The fact that we’re actually in that war room, we are going for what we’re told we could never get,” she said.
“I think it’s the most inspiring thing ever. I love this team. Our Australian team is so powerful. It honestly is.”
A talented triathlete who had ambitions of competing for Australia at the Olympics, Leary crashed her bike during a training session in July 2021. She was riding at 70km an hour when her front wheel clipped the bike in front of her.
She landed on her head, breaking her skull, scapula, ribs and leg as well as puncturing a lung. Soaked in blood when her father found her and called an ambulance, she was in a coma when the last Paralympics were taking place.
She nearly died on a number of occasions, and suffered permanent brain injuries, but made it through all the surgeries and rehabilitation and reset her sights on being a Paralympian. And now she’s a certified gold medal winner.
“I always say you’ve only got one life, so you’ve got to live it to the fullest,” she said.
