Poppy Maskill has clinched Great Britain’s first gold medal at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris and has remarkably set a new world record.
British para-swimmer Maskill, 19, won the women’s S14 100m butterfly final, with her time of 1:03:00 incredibly breaking the world record by a third of a second.
Hong Kong’s Yui Lam Chan took the silver medal – while the bronze went to Valeriia Shabalina – who is competing for the Neutral Paralympic Athletes team.
‘It was so hard,’ Maskill, making her Paralympic debut this year, told the BBC. ‘I was just trying my hardest not to die!
‘I was just trying to see how I could do compared to this morning. It’s weird, it’s really cool. It’s just unreal.’
There was further success for Britain in the pool as William Ellard picked up a silver medal in the men’s S14 butterfly final.
But it hasn’t all been glory for Britain – with Paralympic cyclist Kadeena Cox breaking down in tears – after she crashed out of her gold medal race.
Who is ParalympicsGB star Poppy Maskill?
Poppy Maskill is a British Paralympian coached by Aled Davis. She trains at the British Para-Swimming National Performance Centre in Manchester.
‘Poppy Maskill in a multiple world champion para-swimmer in the S14 Intellectually Impaired classification,’ Aquatics GB posted on their website.
‘After claiming a medal of each colour on her international debut at the Madeira 2022 world championships, Maskill continued to establish herself on the global stage with a medal in all five of her events at the Manchester 2023 world championships including gold in the Mixed S14 4x100m Freestyle Relay.
‘At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Maskill represented Team England in the S14 200m Freestyle placing fourth, while she was later that year awarded ‘Emerging Para-Swimmer of the Year’ at the Aquatics GB awards.
‘Away from swimming, Poppy is a lover of dogs and is fondly known among her teammates for having an incredibly large collection of crocs.
‘Paris 2024 will be Maskill’s first Paralympic Games.’
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