From a collapsed lung to Paris swim champion

When Leanne Smith suffered a partially collapsed lung in late 2022, the idea of winning a Paralympics swimming gold medal, or even just returning to the pool one day, seemed impossible.

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However, on Sept 3, the 36year-old American did just that.

She went one better than at the Tokyo Games in 2021 to win the 100m freestyle S3, the category for swimmers without the use of trunk or legs and partial functioning of their arms and hands.

"If you would have told me I would be a gold medallist in this race 18 months ago, when I was just getting back into the water, I would have told you (that) you were crazy," a grinning Smith said after her 1min 28.81sec effort.