Paralympics-Australian swimmer celebrates gold after fortune teller prediction

PARIS (Reuters) - Three years after surviving a horrific bike accident, Australian Paralympic swimmer Alexa Leary claimed her second gold medal in a world record time in Paris on Wednesday.

Leary's swim of 59.53 seconds in the 100 metres freestyle final broke her world record in the heats of the S9 category which includes swimmers with severe weakness in one leg.

The bubbly 23-year-old from the Sunshine Coast was in a coma in hospital in 2021 after sustaining permanent brain and leg injuries in a high-speed bike crash that left her with a punctured lung and multiple broken bones.

Her parents, warned several times by doctors that their daughter might not survive, turned to a clairvoyant.

"When I was in ICU (intensive care unit), my dad got a fortune teller and the fortune teller read that I wanted to go to the Paralympics. And I’m here," she said.

"Oh my God. I did it."

Leary's positive attitude and triumph over adversity has inspired Australia, giving her a profile to rival the country's able-bodied Olympic champion swimmers, Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown.

Her parents Russell and Belinda watched in pride from the stands at La Defense Arena as their daughter claimed her second gold of the Games, having also won the mixed medley relay.

"I wouldn’t be here without my mum and dad,” Leary said.

"When I was in the brain section, my dad stopped working, and my mum stopped. They were in the hospital with me for six months.

"Dad was constantly at his knees in that hospital every single day next to my bed.

"Dad will be having lots of tissues in his eyes, wiping his little tears. He doesn’t stop crying."

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)