\n<\/p>\n
Applegate, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, was only 16 when she won the 200m freestyle S14 final in London – a triumph that led to her being appointed an MBE.<\/p>\n
But she has suffered injury and health problems during her career and needed surgery in 2016 after experiencing breathing problems for more than a year that she put down to asthma or a chest infection.<\/p>\n
She bounced back to win two silvers and a bronze at the Rio de Janeiro Games in the same year. <\/p>\n
Following her 4x100m gold in Tokyo in 2021, the Paralympics having been postponed for a year, she suffered serious back problems, including a torn disc, a couple of years later.<\/p>\n
Applegate decided against surgery and won her third world 200m gold in Manchester, regaining the freestyle S14 title she had first won a decade earlier.<\/a><\/p>\n But after competing in the trials for Paris with a sprained ankle, she did not make the Great Britain team to compete in the French capital.<\/p>\n