Weggemann, who has recently moved from her training base in Minnesota to Colorado Springs to devote more time to training ahead of London 2012, was paralysed from the waist down in January 2008 after she went for a series of three epidurals to help treat severe back pain.

Major complications with the procedure left Weggemann in a wheelchair and permanently disabled.

Prior to the accident, Weggemann had been involved in competitive swimming and shortly after losing the use of her legs, she decided to attend the 2008 Paralympic Swimming Trials at the University of Minnesota Aquatics Centre.

It was at the trials that Weggemann discovered she could still swim to an extremely high standard and she has since gone on to smash three world records in the 50 and 400 metres freestyle as well as the 100m butterfly in the S7 disability category.

The 21-year-old is now targeting seven events and seven gold medals at the 2012 Paralympics and admits that competing at London has been at the back of her mind ever since she took up Paralympic swimming.

Weggemann said: "My hope is to swim in seven Paralympic events in London and to win gold in all seven of them.

"The events will be the 50, 200 and 400m freestyle, the 50m butterfly, the 100m backstroke, the 100m breaststroke and the 200 IM.

"That’s my goal right now so I guess we’ll just have to see what happens but London has been on my radar since I started Paralympic swimming around two years ago.

"It is tough to train for seven events and I do a lot of distance work with my coach and a lot of weights in the gym with my personal trainer but its hard to switch you body over that much."

Weggemann admits that it was difficult at first for her to adapt to swimming without the use of her legs but claimed that it is something she is learning to compensate for.

She said: "It is different because I don’t have that kick following me through so if my stroke isn’t there in the arms or if I’m not catching the water correctly, it all downhill from there."

Weggemann (pictured) also revealed that she sometimes feels like a victim following her accident but said that it is something she certainly does not dwell on.

She said: "Sometimes you feel like a victim but you can’t live your life feeling that way.

"I’ve just taken it with the attitude that everything in your life happens for a reason.

"You can’t sit around hoping for things to happen; you just have to take control of it yourself."

Weggemann added that she would like to play her part in helping to expand the Paralympic Movement and believes that disability sport, particularly swimming, should feature alongside able bodied sport in order to make the public more aware of it. 

She said: "We should be swimming at meets alongside able bodied swimmers in order to help make everyone more aware of what it is that we actually do.

"I think there are a lot of athletes and swimmers here in the US who don’t really know about the Paralympics and don’t really know what it is all about.

"They see someone in a wheelchair and they don’t think you can swim.

"I mean, I didn’t even think I could swim when this first happened to me and little did I know that this is where I would be so it would be great to promote that.

"The ideal situation for me would be where disabled athletes are included in able bodied events so spectators get to see both able bodied and disabled races at the same meet.

"Little things like that would help raise our profile and that is probably a great starting point to increase awareness of Paralympic swimming and Paralympic sport in general."

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