大象传媒

Water Cube, Beijing

From rock bottom to top of the world, it has been an amazing journey for Britain's .

Frederiksen's life changed completely four years ago when she was 18 and an accident left her with reduced mobility down the right hand side of her body.

Before the accident, she was a talented open water swimmer, competing in the 2003 World Championships and targeting a place at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

From being an active, sporty teenager with her life in front of her, she was left using a wheelchair with her Olympic dreams in tatters.

But Frederiksen, a friend of double Olympic gold medallist and bronze medallist , is nothing if not a fighter and when she was told that she might possibly never swim again, she vowed to prove the experts wrong.

"I'd rather live my life regretting doing something than later on thinking what if I had done it," she explained to me when I met her at the Paralympic trials in Sheffield earlier this year.

"If it had all happened when I was nearing retirement it would have been different, but I was just starting to peak as an able-bodied athlete

"I don't mind admitting that I hit rock bottom after my accident but from there is only one way up and you really find out who your friends are in that situation.

"When the problems affected my arm I dealt with it in my own way but when it affected my leg and I had to use a wheelchair I didn't want to see anyone and I didn't want anyone to see me.

"I still find it hard when I meet people I haven't seen for a while and they aren't aware of what has happened to me."

Frederiksen, from Leigh in Lancashire, started off her journey back at the Manchester High Performance Centre but now trains out of the alongside her old able-bodied coach John Stout and renewing the relationship has paid dividends.

"Because John knew me before my accident he knows how far he can push me and it seems to be paying off," she added.

After making her return, Frederiksen rediscovered her love for the sport and made her international debut in last year and has not looked back.

"In some ways it has helped that I competed at a high level. I've got the mental attitude of knowing who is in front of me and what training I need to get there," she said.

"But you also have to find ways of doing things differently and get new body balances and things like that.

"I've had so much support from my parents, grandparents, friends, boyfriend and coaches and without them I wouldn't be here, as well as my physio who is my counsellor as well as my physio.

"I've come through a lot but I know that there are people a lot worse off than me."

She said after the semi-finals that her aim for the final was to show the rest of the field who was boss and if they wanted gold they would have to get by her first.

One of those was American , one of the poster girls of the US swim team - a Russian orphan adopted by a Baltimore family and the winner of three gold medals in Athens four years ago when she was aged only 12.

Long had won two golds already this Games, including beating Frederiksen in the S8 100m freestyle two days ago, but the backstroke is the Briton's speciality.

Earlier in the year she equalled the world record in the event, showed her intent by breaking it in the morning heats at the Water Cube and in the final, nothing was going to stop her.

There was no danger of anyone catching Frederiksen as she powered out from the start and brought it home in superb style in a time of one minute 16.74 seconds - bettering her semi-final time of 1:17.62.

"To be able to reproduce the form I showed in the morning was great and I knew I had it in me to clock that time because I was doing some good times in my warm-up in the afternoon," she told 大象传媒 Sport after her win.

"To cope with the nerves and the expectation of going in as world record holder is something you have to get your head around, but I had to just block it out and go for it.

"I went for it as hard as I could and I can say I am one of the elite now."