Sammi Kinghorn: Borders wheelchair athlete wins historic first Paralympic gold medal

The Great Britain star, of Gordon, beat Swiss great Catherine Debrunner by 0.13 seconds with a time of 15.64, surpassing the previous Paralympic record by 0.55 seconds.

Kinghorn, who rebuilt her body after an accident on the family farm in 2010 left her with a spinal cord injury which paralysed her from the waist down, used wheelchair racing as a way to accept her new reality.

After her win, the now five-time Paralympic medallist paid tribute to the Borders community who helped her get to the top of the world.

She said: “I love training, when I had my accident my body was torn down to nothing and I rebuilt it. Training was something that helped me accept this ‘new me’.

“I never thought I’d be Paralympic champion so to be here as the fastest ever (in the Paralympics) is just mental.

“My physio at the time, Claire, in the spinal unit in Glasgow, was incredible. I loved sport before my accident and she got me into trying loads of different ones.

“I tried wheelchair racing and Ian Thompson, Tanni Grey-Thompson’s husband, said ‘you could be good at this’. That was like a switch.

“Something traumatic had just happened to me and I didn’t know if I’d be good at anything ever again.

“I remember thinking ‘I’m going to do this’. I went home to my parents and said ‘I just need £10,000 to get this going!’.

“I’m very lucky to come from an incredible place in the Borders, they supported me and fundraised for me and now I’m Paralympic champion.”

Kinghorn had already won two silver medals in her first two events at Paris 2024, winning ParalympicsGB’s first medal on the track in the 800m on Sunday.

She then claimed a surprise 1500m silver on Tuesday despite stopping pushing with 200m to go after confusion over how many laps were left. Then came her 100m gold the following day.

Kinghorn added: “I sobbed the whole way around the victory lap. Winning my first Paralympic medals with no-one in the stands was pretty heartbreaking.

“So to see all my family in the stands – I have 29 people here with posters of my face – is so incredibly special.

“Although it’s an individual sport, I have a huge team behind me and they all make me believe I can do what I’ve just done out there. My mind is still blown.”

Delighted sportscotland chairperson Maureen Campbell said: "Sammi Kinghorn truly deserves this gold medal, adding to her two silvers she has won already!

"Sammi has performed outstandingly at these Paralympic Games and to come away with three medals and a Paralympic record is sensational! Sammi has put in an extraordinary amount of effort into preparing for these games and truly deserves all the success that she has achieved in Paris. She is real inspiration to the next generation of athletes!"

Kinghorn will lock horns with Swiss rival Debrunner again later today (Thursday), in the women’s T53 400m final which starts from 6.26pm, before finishing her campaign in Friday’s 4x100m universal relay from 7.42pm.

Elswhere, in the pool, fellow Borderer Stephen Clegg, 28, of Newcastleton, believes that the future of British visually impaired swimming is set to be golden after a fourth-place finish in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay.

ParalympicsGB did not even reach the starting blocks in the event at Tokyo, but the quartet of Scarlett Humphrey, Matthew Redfern, Rebecca Redfern and Clegg clinched fourth in a brilliant new national record of 4:04.12 at Paris.

It might have been just over six seconds outside of a podium place but Clegg is convinced that glory could be on the cards at a future Games.

"I saw Rebecca come in and realised that we were a lot closer to medals than I anticipated which was great," he said.

"It's amazing to see how in a space of one year how quickly we have jumped ahead. These guys have done a tremendous job to really push the event forward.

"I hope seeing us come fourth in the event can get a few more people involved in the sport because there's definitely a lot of prospects for us heading into LA and Brisbane after that."

It was the second fourth place finish of the night for Clegg who missed out on a medal in his individual 100m freestyle by just two hundredths of a second in a time of 53.67s.

Clegg finishes his Paralympic campaign in the S12 100m butterfly this Saturday.