Paralympic Games, Day 8: Australia’s Tim Hodge Achieves ‘Impossible’ with Golden Finish In Paris
For the past three years Tim Hodge has been a man on a mission and today in Paris, the boy from Blacktown in Western Sydney (NSW) achieved his lifelong dream – Paralympic gold – Australia’s fourth in what has been a hard-fought campaign.
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 – his first as a member of the victorious. 4x100m mixed medley relay in world record time.
His second, a gold medal to savor.
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.
GOLDEN GLOW: Tim Hodge with his long awaited gold medal in the 200IM in Paris. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).
For a lad from a working-class family, who said to his mother, “I’ll never be any good at anything now” showed just what can be achieved in life with his golden swim in the SM9 200IM in a new Paralympic record on Thursday.
A record in fact held by his hero – Australia’s greatest Paralympic swimmer, Matthew Cowdrey – the winner of 23 medals – 13 of them gold and three in the 200IM – setting the Paralympic record (broken today by Hodge) in Beijing back in 2008.
And by doing stuff, says Hodge “that people either can’t do or won’t do, and you’ve got to do it day in and day out to stay on top,” winning the one he really wanted at the 2024 Paris Games – his maiden individual Paralympic gold – to the cheers of the packed La Defense Arena.
Hodge led from start to finish to claim the gold in his Paralympic record time of 2.13:31
He went into the race as the two-time world champion and world record holder and described how his training had to be “impossible” to win the elusive Paralympic gold.
“The hard thing with being world champion, world record holder, is that you’ve got no one to chase,” he told the Nine Network.
“So everything you’ve got to do to improve is stuff that people have never done before.
“You’ve got to do stuff that people either can’t do or won’t do, and you’ve got to do it day in and day out to stay on top.
“So my coach (Misha Payne at the Australian Catholic University, Blacktown) and I have been working really hard at making sure that we do the impossible to make sure that when it comes to this stage, the impossible becomes possible.”
Hodge’s gold saw Advance Australia Fair ring out for a fourth time in Paris and finally completed his pool room full medal collection.