Team GB wheelchair racer Sammi Kinghorn took silver in the Women's 800m T53 on Sunday winning ParalympicsGB’s first medal and then repeated the feat in the Women's 1500m T54 on Tuesday, beaten in both events by Switzerland's Catherine Debrunner. 

On Wednesday evening, in the only final featuring a Brit on Day 7 of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, in the only final featuring a Brit, she finally managed to oust her Swiss rival securing gold in the Women’s T53 100m final and setting a Paralympic record in the process.

The 28-year-old's time of 15.64 eclipsed the previous Paralympic record by 0.55 seconds as she beat out competition from silver-medalist Debrunner and bronze medalist Fang Gao of China at the Stade de France.

"I don’t even know what it means to me yet. I love training, when I had my accident my body was torn down to nothing and I rebuilt it" said Kinghorn.

"Training was something that helped me accept this ‘new me’. I never thought I’d be a Paralympic champion so to be here as the fastest ever is just mental."

Her win comes 14 years on from when she was crushed by snow and ice which fell from the roof at the family farmhouse in Berwickshire in December of 2010. 

The then 14-year-old was taken to a Borders General Hospital where she underwent emergency surgery for serious spinal injuries.

The accident ultimately left her paralysed from the waist down and she soon took up wheelchair racing after her physiotherapist took her to Stoke Mandeville Stadium to take part in the WheelPower Inter Spinal Games.

Under two years later she entered the 2012 London Mini Marathon coming second before going on to star in the Commonwealth Games, European Championships, World Champions, and now her second Paralympics.

“My physio at the time, Claire, in the spinal unit in Glasgow, was incredible. I loved sport before my accident and she got me into trying loads of different ones," she explains.

“I tried wheelchair racing and Ian Thompson, Tanni Grey-Thompson’s husband, said ‘you could be good at this’. That was like a switch. Something traumatic had just happened to me and I didn’t know if I’d be good at anything ever again." 

Kinghorn credits the support and fundraising efforts of the Borders community for her success in wheelchair racing. 

“I remember thinking ‘I’m going to do this’. I went home to my parents and said ‘I just need £10,000 to get this going!’ I’m very lucky to come from an incredible place in the Borders, they supported me and fundraised for me and now I’m Paralympic champion," said Kinghorn.

It is a far cry from her Tokyo experience in which she won bronze in the 100m T53. “I sobbed the whole way around the victory lap. Winning my first Paralympic medals with no-one in the stands was pretty heartbreaking," she explains.

“So to see all my family in the stands – I have 29 people here with posters of my face – is so incredibly special. Although it’s an individual sport, I have a huge team behind me and they all make me believe I can do what I’ve just done out there. My mind is still blown.”

Kinghorn will compete in the Women's 400m T53 final on Thursday in her last event at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.