“I positively really feel that I am a greater athlete for what I have been by.”
Kathleen Dawson received a relay gold medal on the Tokyo Olympics, however then spent three years battling with a career-threatening again harm.
The 26-year-old from Fife has now earned a spot on the Paris Video games this summer time after profitable the 100m backstroke on the British Championships.
“I am unable to imagine I’ll a second Olympics,” she informed BBC Sport. “It is a very emotional thought.
“With the expertise and data I’ve picked up going by this rollercoaster, you’ll be able to’t take something too critically. I am swimming up and down in a pool nevertheless it means the world to me on the identical time.”
The College of Stirling swimmer was a part of the profitable combined 4x100m medley workforce in Tokyo in 2021 however was already affected by a bulging disc, which precipitated sciatica.
“Straight after the Olympics my again went ‘proper I am completed now’ and gave up on me,” she defined.
“I could not bend over to place socks on. It was arduous simply getting off the bed.”
Her time of 59.81 within the heats was her first time underneath 60 seconds since 2021 and a 59.74 within the last secured her Olympic return.
“It has been a giant check of my psychological character,” added the British record-holder for the 50m and 100m backstroke. “There have been a whole lot of instances I might have chucked it in.
“This was the aim I set myself for coming again, to make it to Paris.
“I loved it final time as a result of I knew our workforce was going to come back away with a gold medal.
“Going on this time with out feeling ache every single day, that may positively be a giant plus.”