{"id":596009,"date":"2024-09-05T19:51:34","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T02:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=596009"},"modified":"2024-09-05T21:30:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T04:30:34","slug":"paralympic-games-day-8-australias-tim-hodge-turns-mission-impossible-into-possible-with-a-golden-finish-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/paralympic-games-day-8-australias-tim-hodge-turns-mission-impossible-into-possible-with-a-golden-finish-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Paralympic Games, Day 8: Australia\u2019s Tim Hodge Achieves ‘Impossible’ with Golden Finish In Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paralympic Games, Day 8: Australia\u2019s Tim Hodge Achieves ‘Impossible’ with Golden Finish In Paris<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the past three years Tim Hodge<\/strong> has been a man on a mission and today in Paris, the boy from Blacktown in Western Sydney (NSW) achieved his lifelong dream \u2013 Paralympic gold \u2013 Australia\u2019s fourth in what has been a hard-fought campaign.<\/p>\n

After two previous Games, Hodge had won two silver and a bronze in Tokyo in 2021, and now he is a dual Paralympic gold medallist \u2013 his first as a member of the victorious. 4x100m mixed medley relay in world record time.<\/p>\n

His second, a gold medal to savor.<\/p>\n

The first individual gold for the 23-year-old who had the lower limb on his right leg amputated at the age of four, has actually been a lifetime in the making.<\/p>\n

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GOLDEN GLOW: Tim Hodge with his long awaited gold medal in the 200IM in Paris. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).<\/p><\/div>\n

For a lad from a working-class family, who said to his mother, \u201cI\u2019ll never be any good at anything now\u201d showed just what can be achieved in life with his golden swim in the SM9 200IM in a new Paralympic record on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A record in fact held by his hero \u2013 Australia\u2019s greatest Paralympic swimmer, Matthew Cowdrey<\/strong> \u2013 the winner of 23 medals \u2013 13 of them gold and three in the 200IM \u2013 setting the Paralympic record (broken today by Hodge) in Beijing back in 2008.<\/p>\n