Raleigh Paralympic swimmer takes home the gold in Tokyo
Posted August 30, 2021 7:10 p.m. EDT
Updated August 30, 2021 11:05 p.m. EDT
Hannah Aspden, a Raleigh native, was born without a leg. But that didn't stop her from becoming a decorated athlete.
"I really found my home in the water and found it to be more of an even playing field," she told WRAL News in an interview at the beginning of August.
Aspden, 21, scored her first gold medal, winning the 100-meter backstroke S9 at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. She pulled ahead in the final 25 meters, beating Nuria Marques Soto, from Spain, and Sophie Pascoe, from New Zealand.
The senior at Queen's University won bronze in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games when she was only 16 years old. The university said she's the first Queens University athlete to win gold at the Olympics or Paralympics.
She also earned silver in the 4x100 medley relay while representing Team USA in the 2018 Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championship and won two gold and two silver medals in the World Championships in 2015 and 2017.
“It really means a lot after these five years of getting ready to come here and get to do something like that. I’m really grateful for that," she said in Tokyo.
Aspden was born with one leg and congenital hip disarticulation, but that has not slowed her down. She was already swimming at 4 years old, and by 8 she was competing year round.
