After successful cancer treatment, Elena Semechin is better than ever. At the Paralympics, she outclassed the competition with a fabulous time. She is not thinking about quitting yet.
Elena Semechin’s bow to the audience should actually have been the other way around. The visually impaired exceptional swimmer not only set a world record in the 100 meter breaststroke at the Paralympics, but also appeared better than ever after successful chemotherapy and radiation treatment for a brain tumor. “I also showed myself that you can get out of such situations if you have wishes and dreams and fight for them,” explained the 30-year-old.
Shortly after winning Paralympic gold in Tokyo three years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer – a brain tumor. An operation followed by therapy was necessary, she was told. Before that, she married her boyfriend and trainer Phillip Semechin. Just a few days after the therapy, the Kazakh-born woman was back in training. “I never thought back then that my trainer would turn me, a sporting wreck, into an athlete who could then swim a world record,” she explained.
Journalist told her about the world record
On Thursday evening, she not only swam away from the competition, but also broke the world record: she needed 1:12.54 minutes in the pool at the La Défense Arena. “I only found out from journalists that it worked,” she said. Semechin cannot see the scoreboard. She only has around two percent vision left.
Beaming with joy, she accepted the gold and wanted to use this triumph to send a message. “Maybe I can show other people that so much can happen in life. But we have the power to say that we shouldn’t let it get us down,” Semechin stressed.
Goal Paralympics in LA 2028
She has two Paralympic gold medals to her name, set a world record and has kept cancer at bay for the time being. What else is there to come? “I’m not ruling out Los Angeles,” she explained. The next Paralympics will take place there in 2028. “It’s on my list,” said Semechin.
Source: Stern
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