American swimmer Christie Raleigh Crossley started her Paralympics career with a bang on Thursday, breaking a world record in a heat.
“Welcome to the show!” the broadcaster said as the Paris Games began the first full day of competition after the opening ceremony.
The Associated Press previously reported that Raleigh Crossley experienced partial paralysis from a brain tumor in 2018 but still attempted a comeback to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics. When she began to train for the trials, however, she discovered she had no control over her left arm.
In 2022, she began training for the Paralympics.
“There’s muscle memory, that left arm will do whatever,” Raleigh Crossley, a 37-year-old mother of three, told AP. “But if I focus on my right [arm], then I know that that side at least is where my power is.”
