PARIS PARLYMPICS 2024: Alexa Leary’s journey from near-fatal crash to mixed relay gold medal

One hundred metres. In fourth place. More than six seconds behind the leader.

They were the brutal numbers stacked against Alexa Leary as she dived into the pool to swim the final leg of the 34-point mixed 4x100m medley relay at the Paris Paralympic Games.

Not only that, the team way out in front — the Netherlands — had chosen Thijs van Hofweggen as their final swimmer.

So it was female against male as well.

But for Leary, she’s had plenty stacked against her over the last three years.

In 2021 the star triathlete suffered a life-threatening cycling accident while training on the Sunshine Coast after she clipped a bike in front of her while going at more than 70kmh.

After a fortnight in ICU at Royal Brisbane Hospital her distraught parents were told they might have to say their last goodbyes. But then Alexa started breathing by herself.

And — ever-so-slowly — despite a brain injury, eight months in different hospitals and being told she wouldn’t walk again, she kept defying expectations.

“I proved them wrong. I am walking now,” she said when she was back on her feet. I had to restart a whole new life. I didn’t have my licence. I had no hair. I didn’t have much at all.”

But soon she had a dream.

After doctors told her to start swimming to help rehabilitate her body, those days in the pool inspired her to target the 2024 Paralympic Games.

In the lead-up to Paris, her beaming smile and bubbling self-belief saw her become a face of the Aussie team.

And as she stood at the pool deck with history beckoning on Monday, it wasn’t a numbers or a gender game in front of her, it was about a pledge — bringing home the gold.

With the packed crowd in the Paris La Defense Arena roaring in her ears she urged her teammates ­(Jesse Aungles, Tim Hodge and Emily Beecroft) on over the first 300m of the relay.

But she also knew the part she had to play.

“I was watching us, and I was like, ‘come on, come on’,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to have to weapon myself out there, we’ve got to take home the gold’,”.

And so she “weaponed herself” to swim the anchor leg of her life.

Over the first 50m she sliced through the water to turn in second place. And as she launched off the wall with a lap to go, the 23-year-old had cut the Dutchman’s lead down to 2.94 seconds.

“I knew I had to catch (van Hofweggen), I’m going to have to overtake him,” Leary said. “I could see him, and I was like, ‘I just have to take this win.’ I just had to.”

And she did, sweeping past her rival in the last 10 metres and leading Australia to a paralympic record of 4 minutes and 28.77 seconds.

Olympic great Cate Campbell called it “the most unbelievable swim I have ever seen” and as Leary stood with her teammates — all holding each other as they shared their achievement — her bubbling description of what happened couldn’t be contained.

“He was actually a bit in front of me at 15 metres, but I caught him. I just had to,” Leary told Nine.

“They were a bit in front and I thought, ‘I’ve got to chase these people. We’re the best team ever and we’re going to win this s--t’.

“I knew they were in front of me so I was going to get them, we got to. We’re a strong team. All of us did our best and I loved it.

“The atmosphere was great, I was like, ‘C’mon guys let’s get this’ and we did. We’re the best team ever to be honest with you.”

Leary, Aungles, Hodge and Beecroft were joined on the podium by heat swimmers Keira Stephens and Callum Simpson. And Beecroft, like most people in the Arena, couldn’t believe what she’d seen.

“I’m still in shock,” she said. “Coming into tonight, I knew it was going to be so close, but I was honestly not expecting to win.

“It’s unbelievable . . . she (Leary) was unbelievable.”

In the crowd to witness Leary’s first Paralympic gold medal were her parents, Belinda and Russ.

Three years ago they were told they may lose their daughter, but now they watched on as that same girl sat _ smiling as usual _ on top of the world.