WEBVTT

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<v ->Swimming's one of those sports</v>

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where you have your face in the water.

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You have no idea what's going on in the outside world.

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And so you spend a lot of time with your mind.

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When times are really hard,

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you just jump in the pool and you think things over.

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If you've got a biology exam coming up,

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you jump in the pool and you think things over.

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If you've had a fight with your partner,

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you jump in the pool and you think things over.

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So it's a really great pool of reflection,

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I guess you could say.

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(gentle music)

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I think that when you're young,

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you just wanna be accepted by all of your friends.

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And a way for me to do that was swimming.

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For me, swimming was particularly special

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because it was the only sport

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that I could participate in as a kid

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where I could take my prosthetic leg off, jump in the water,

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and I could be the same as all the other kids.

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And then I found after a while

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that I could actually be better

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than most of my friends at that sport.

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And it gave me a really great platform

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to show all of my friends at school

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that I could still achieve things in a physical sense,

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because I definitely wasn't running up and down

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beside them in the playground,

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but get me into a pool, and I'll beat you.

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That was always kind of the mentality

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that I had when I was younger.

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And so for me,

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the pool was definitely a great place of freedom,

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but it was where I learned how to back myself,

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how to be resilient, how to show the world what I could do.

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And then I found my way onto the Paralympic team

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with that exact same attitude

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and have since seen how the Paralympics can show the world

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what their athletes do.

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(cheerful music)

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The great thing about Paralympic swimming for me is

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that I see people who have no arms and no legs

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that are still swimming.

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And so for me to break a hip or to break a foot

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wasn't really a good enough excuse for me to stop swimming.

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I just had to find a different way to do things

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and be really creative.

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That's one of the things that I love about parasport.

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(cheerful music)

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Being a Paralympian is the best job in the world.

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So I get to wake up in the morning nice and early,

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and I have about 20 minutes to myself

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before I go to the pool.

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And then I usually jump in the pool right behind me here

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and swim for about two hours and then jump out of the pool

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and get about an hour of physiotherapy exercises done.

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And then, if time permits, I go home and have a nap.

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But usually I have other commitments.

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And then I'm back in the afternoon

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for another two-hour session.

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I guess you have to love the sport to swim four hours a day.

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The most proud that I've ever been is

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when I won my gold medal

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in the 100-meter backstroke at Rio,

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because I had been racing for nine days,

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and I'd been chasing gold medals,

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but I'd always be getting touched out and getting silver,

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which is still great.

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But I got to day nine,

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and I had one last chance to win a gold medal.

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And I was so stressed out before the event

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that I locked myself in a toilet cubicle

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and had a mild panic attack

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and didn't think that I could go out there and race.

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And I got myself out of the toilet cubicle,

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and I walked onto the pool deck.

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And I jumped in, and I won the race.

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It was the greatest moment ever.

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(cheerful music)

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So I did that photo shoot with Peter

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right before the Rio Paralympic Games.

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And it was a moment where we really wanted

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to showcase the athletes of Australia

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that were going to the Olympics and the Paralympics.

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And so I was asked to do a photo shoot outside,

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which was really exciting for me to begin with.

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And then Peter put me on some really beautiful rocks

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with the Australian flag.

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And obviously, I'm very proud

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to be an Australian Paralympian, so to have the flag

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in that photo was really important to me.

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I guess he kind of wanted to show what I wanted to be

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when I was younger, which was a mermaid.

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I always dreamed of being a mermaid when I was younger.

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And so to be able to capture that in a portrait,

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as well as the strength

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and showcasing my disability as well

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and combining that into my childhood dream,

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with the inclusion of being strong and powerful,

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was a really great photo for me.

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It's something that I've always looked back on

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and been really proud to have been involved

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in such a creation.

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But I always look at it and think, "That's not me."

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But it is. (laughs)

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It's just beautiful.

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(gentle music)

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To be able to just showcase my disability is something

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that I can't really put into words.

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When I was younger,

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I never saw people or role models that had a disability.

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It's really a dream come true,

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just to be able to show the world

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that you can still be a mermaid.

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You can still have a disability.

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You can still be a Paralympian.

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You can do whatever you like.

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Yeah. It's cool.

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(cheerful music)

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I don't know how land people do exercises.

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Exercises on land when it comes with gravity

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and changes in blood pressure is really difficult.

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I really take my hat off to these land people.

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(laughs)