No more individual medley as champ gives her all
I can say you have just witnessed my last ever 200 IM. I will be cutting the events down now.
There’s no doubt Sophie Pascoe gave her all to win her fourth straight Paralympic title in the 200m individual medley (SM9) in Tokyo, throwing up and blacking out shortly after claiming her 11th gold.
It completed a famous fourpeat — adding to gold medals she had won in the discipline in Beijing, London and Rio.
After the race she said that will be her final 200m individual medley race.
Coach Matt Ingram and physio Megan Munro were quick to help her and the medal ceremony was moved while Pascoe received oxygen to recover.
“I did really leave it all out there and even left some on the side of the pool. But that is what a fight is all about and I really wanted it, I wanted to make it a fourpeat. It just came down to that last 10 metres not breathing. That comes down to the skills that Roly [Crichton] and I have been working on for many years doing this race.” she said.
“I can say you have just witnessed my last ever 200 IM. I will be cutting the events down now so it is nice to finish on a positive and with a gold. The mentality in that race was just to fight and dig deep. It came down to experience and that is what got me this gold medal.
Sophie Pascoe
“To come away with the four-peat I’m proud of myself. I’m so lucky to have Matt [Ingram] and Megan [Munro] on the side of the pool to get me medical attention,” said Pascoe.
“The fact the IPC moved the medal ceremony just shows how much respect they have for the athletes competing here,” she added.