{"id":16040,"date":"2024-04-13T04:04:38","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T04:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/a-big-test-of-my-mental-character-kathleen-dawson-on-reaching-paris-2024-after-back-injury\/"},"modified":"2024-04-13T04:04:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T04:04:39","slug":"a-big-test-of-my-mental-character-kathleen-dawson-on-reaching-paris-2024-after-back-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/a-big-test-of-my-mental-character-kathleen-dawson-on-reaching-paris-2024-after-back-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A big test of my mental character’ – Kathleen Dawson on reaching Paris 2024 after back injury"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“I definitely feel that I’m a better athlete for what I’ve been through.”<\/b><\/p>\n

Kathleen Dawson won a relay gold medal<\/a> at the Tokyo Olympics, but then spent three years battling with a career-threatening back injury.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old from Fife has now earned a spot at the Paris Games this summer after winning the 100m backstroke<\/a> at the British Championships.<\/p>\n

“I can’t believe I’m going to a second Olympics,” she told BBC Sport. “It’s a very emotional thought.<\/p>\n

“With the experience and knowledge I’ve picked up going through this rollercoaster, you can’t take anything too seriously. I’m swimming up and down in a pool but it means the world to me at the same time.”<\/p>\n

The University of Stirling swimmer was part of the successful mixed 4x100m medley team in Tokyo in 2021 but was already suffering from a bulging disc, which caused sciatica.<\/p>\n

“Straight after the Olympics my back went ‘right I’m done now’ and gave up on me,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t bend over to put socks on. It was hard just getting out of bed.”<\/p>\n

Her time of 59.81 in the heats was her first time under 60 seconds since 2021 and a 59.74 in the final secured her Olympic return.<\/p>\n

“It has been a big test of my mental character,” added the British record-holder for the 50m and 100m backstroke. “There have been a lot of times I could have chucked it in.<\/p>\n

“This was the goal I set myself for coming back, to make it to Paris.<\/p>\n

“I enjoyed it last time because I knew our team was going to come away with a gold medal.<\/p>\n

“Going in this time without feeling pain every day, that will definitely be a big plus.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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“I definitely feel that I’m a better athlete for what I’ve been through.” Kathleen Dawson won a relay gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, but then spent three years battling with a career-threatening back injury. The 26-year-old from Fife has now earned a spot at the Paris Games this summer after winning the 100m backstroke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16042,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16040\/revisions\/16042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}