The proud parents of Paralympic gold medallist Ellen Keane have praised their “unbelievable” daughter.
The 26-year-old from Clontarf, Dublin, shaved three seconds off her personal best to land the top spot in the SB8 100m breaststroke in Tokyo yesterday.
Ellen blazed through her heat with a time of 1.21.71 before smashing that record in the final with a time of 1.19.93.
Mum Laura was overjoyed after the win and credited her daughter for all her hard work.
She said: “I can’t put it into words how proud of her I am. It’s so emotional. She was just amazing.
“I have never seen her swim like that in my life. She was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. This will mean so much to her. She’s fought so long to get to this stage – the gold medal.
“I mean the gold medal is absolutely out of this world but to get a personal best in the heat and then to top if off with another PB, that is every bit as good as the medal if not more for her.
“It’s so long since she’s got a PB and this is absolutely unreal. She just was amazing.
“I’m just totally overcome with the whole thing. I nearly collapsed with the nerves. My legs were going like jelly. I’m just so, so happy. We’re all so proud of her.” And speaking to RTE, dad Eddie gushed: “We’re so proud. We can’t believe she got a gold medal. She’s unbelievable. We love her so much.”
Speaking after the final, the super quick swimmer said she stuck to her plan and was strong and controlled to secure victory.
Ellen added: “I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet.
“When I dove in my goggles filled up with water and I think maybe that was a good thing because I couldn’t see where the girls were around me.
“I had a game plan in mind and I stuck to that.
“I tend to rush my stroke when I try to go fast and for me it was just like, I’m a strong person and if I start to rush my stroke I actually don’t get any power in my legs.
“It was more about being long and strong and controlled.”
Ellen also spoke candidly about her long road to Paralympic gold.
The talented athlete is at her fourth games, having first competed in the Paralympic Games in Beijing as a
13-year-old.
She also won bronze in Rio in 2016.
Speaking to RTE she said: “To be honest, I thought I would have won a gold medal a long time ago and it did get to me throughout the years.
“Just having that break and having that time off made me miss the sport, fall in love with the sport again.”
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