Clegg gold completes magnificent Games for ParalympicsGB swimmers

Stephen Clegg wanted to retire from swimming after missing out on gold in Tokyo but walks away from Paris with two glittering victories and a world record.

The 28-year-old backed up his maiden gold in the 100m backstroke earlier in the Games with 100m butterfly victory on the final night at La Defense Arena to bring a glittering end to what has been a difficult three years for the swimmer.

Touching the wall in a time of 57.49 seconds for gold, Clegg noted that this was the event on his mind all week and was thrilled to finally complete his butterfly redemption arc.

“The backstroke was a bonus event but this is the one where the passion was, the emotion was and the pressure is,” he said.

“It’s a great feeling to finally get it. I wasn’t too sure when I touched the wall whether I had or not but I did.

“The original outlook after Tokyo was to retire after I didn’t get the gold and I wasn’t enjoying the sport anymore but here I am now.”

Clegg’s gold took ParalympicsGB to a total of 18 gold medals in the pool at Paris 2024 compared to the eight they won in Tokyo, with 32 medals won in the pool across the whole Games.

He was pulled out of the pool in celebration by teammate Alice Tai after her own 100m butterfly medal ceremony in wholesome moment on pool deck.

Tai went into the pain cave to make it five medals from five events with bronze in her final event, touching the wall in a time of 1:13.60 after being overhauled in the final 10m.

She said: “It’s probably one of the silliest races I’ve ever swam!

“The first 50 felt really nice, I got to the last 20 metres and it just started getting worse to the point where I thought ‘I don’t care where I come, I just want to finish’.”

Brock Whiston expressed her surprise in touching for fourth place in the 100m butterfly Paralympic final after only picking up the event this year.

Whiston was touched out of bronze my just 0.09 seconds to teammate Alice Tai, Whiston was over-the-moon to see just how far she has come on in such a short space of time.

“If you had asked me a week before trials that I was doing the 100m fly here, I would have said that no way but I got a PB at trials to qualify,” she said.

“I only competed at trials because it was the last slot there and now I’m fourth at the Paralympic Games in an event that is just fun for me.”

There was also a fourth place touch for Faye Rogers in the women’s 200m individual medley, another relatively new event for the swimmer.

“The 200IM is a really new event for me, as I’ve picked it up in the last year and a half,” she said.

“The time there is not what I’ve really trained for. I’ve trained for faster than that, but it’s been a really long week and I gave it everything.”