PARIS (AP) — Gia Pergolini walked into the Paris La Défense Arena Friday to compete in the women’s 100m backstroke finals knowing she had serious business to attend to.
At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, the American 17-year-old swam an S13 world record time and knew heading into Paris that there were expectations to champion once more. The S13 classification is for athletes with less-severe visual impairments.
“I was just being a goofball in Tokyo, and then here, I’m like, okay, I have a title to defend,” Pergolini said. “I have this huge crowd watching, which was amazing.”
Now a 20-year-old student at Florida International University, Pergolini won Team USA’s first gold medal of the Paralympics. Her time of 1 minute, 4.93 seconds was just 0.3 seconds off the world record she set in Tokyo.
“It’s so unreal, I can’t really explain it into words,” she said. “But just hitting the wall and seeing my two biggest competitors come in, and knowing that I won the United States first gold medal is just so unreal and so incredible.”
She said she has grown mentally and matured in those three years, but despite her experience nerves were still a factor.
“I just kept saying to myself, worrying won’t change the result of the race,” Pergolini said. “I just kept reminding myself to try and embody my little innocent 17-year-old self of just having fun and going out there and doing what I know best.”
As she walked out on deck Friday afternoon, the Atlanta native said she could hear her mom in the crowd despite the noise of fans who filled La Defense Arena. The energy was something Pergolini had not experienced in Tokyo and said she loved the attention this time around.
“I think I blacked out at one moment, but I remember getting in the water and hearing my mom,” Pergolini said. “I barely heard the crowd I just heard them.”
Yet the crowd still got Pergolini thinking about the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games.
“I’m going to take it year-by-year, try to make it through these games, but I mean being here and seeing how the French support the swimmers from France and their team is just so incredible and unreal,” Pergolini said. “I really want to experience that at L.A. at my home games.”
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Ana Escamilla is a student in the undergraduate certificate program in the Carmical Sports Media Institute at the University of Georgia.
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