WORCESTER’S Giedre Rakauskaite won Paralympic gold for Great Britain competing in the PR3 mixed coxed four event in Paris – on the 18th anniversary of the accident which left her disabled.
Rakauskaite secured a second Paralympic gold, following her success at Tokyo 2020, alongside Frankie Allen, Josh O’Brien, Ed Fuller and cox Erin Kennedy.
The 33-year-old helped Britain win gold in a time of 6 minutes 55.30 seconds ahead of United States of America in second and France in third.
Rakauskaite said: “18-years-ago I was in a car accident that led me to becoming a Paralympic athlete. It’s an anniversary that I’m going to celebrate now with a gold medal.
“Every year this is going to be a golden moment. The Paralympic Games is like a second chance. I always wanted to be an athlete when I was a child, and I thought that chance was taken from me and finding out in my 20s that I can still pursue my dream as a Paralympian was something that I latched on to and clearly didn’t give up.
“It’s been 14 years of winning for this boat, but I think every single year has been pushing us on. We’ve been taking trust from the teammates before us, there has always been an overlap of at least one or two athletes from previous Games so we draw what we can from them and keep pushing on and try to make them proud.”
