Bethany collects four medals at Tokyo games

Bethany collects four medals at Tokyo games

8 September 2021

SEAFORDE golden girl Bethany Firth returned home a hero after her magnificent performance at the Paralympic games in Tokyo.

The 25 year-old secured her second gold of the games in the 100 metre backstroke S14, adding to her world record breaking performance with Team GB in the 4x100 metres freestyle relay.

There were fears that Bethany may not even make it to Tokyo after enduring a testing time with injuries, but in the true spirit of the games, the para-swimmer exceeded expectations to bring home four medals from the Japanese capital.

“She’s done remarkably well after the year she’s had with shoulder injuries and being so much out of the water. To come home with two golds and two silvers is amazing,” said Bethany’s mum Lindsey.

Bethany’s trainer Nelson Lindsay also shared his previous worries when it came to injuries for the swimming sensation.

“Things weren’t looking good about six weeks or so ago; she’d had a lot of injuries this year and we had to build up her training again and with Bethany, it involves building her skills as well as her fitness so we were trying to build those back up,” he said.

“She’s had a difficult season and lost a lot of pool training time with injury and rehabilitation. That has affected her on her other strokes. Now it’s time to celebrate Bethany’s success. I’ll see her when she gets back on Sunday.”

With the hard work done, Bethany can enjoy some well deserved time off, knowing that the hours of training and dedication have well been worth it.

“Bethany is absolutely delighted,” said her proud mum.

“She thinks the medals are lovely. She’s had pizza which she’s not had for months if not years and she’s eaten some junk food and she’s loving it”.

The local inspiration already has an eye-catching amount of medals in her Paralympic collection, with six golds and three silvers to her name.

Her first gold medal came in the London 2012 games whilst representing Ireland, before she made the switch to Team GB ahead of Rio in 2016.

This is where Bethany shone, securing three golds and a silver medal before completing her collection at this year’s delayed Tokyo games.