Swim star Steph thrilled by '˜incredible' gold medal

The 25-year-old ace was part of the winning 34-point 4x100m medley relay in Rio – starring alongside team-mates Alice Tai, Claire Cashmore and Steph Millward.

The quartet smashed the world record on their way to the gold, finishing ahead of Australia and the USA, who took silver and bronze respectively.

Slater said: “It was incredible.

“The relays are always so exciting and to be a part of it – I am so honoured to have been selected for it.

“We broke the world record, which was absolutely incredible. We broke the record back in 2013 and so to do it again at the Paralympics is unbelievable.

“But we knew the Aussies were going to be right on our tails and obviously at London 2012, they pipped GB to the gold medal – we didn’t want that to happen again.

“We just knew that we each had to swim our legs as fast as we could, but also to keep it controlled and not to get too excited.

“We all did amazingly and so to come out on top was absolutely fantastic.”

In the individual events, Slater won a silver in the S8 100m butterfly and agonisingly missed out on another medal when she came fourth in the S8 50m freestyle final.

She was also part of the GB relay team which came fourth in the 100mx4 freestyle final.

While disappointed to miss out on an individual gold, Slater was pleased with her performances considering injury and illness had affected her training schedule this year.

“Obviously silver wasn’t what I wanted because you come here to win gold,” said Slater.

“But I have not had a particularly great season – I’ve only had five months in the water due to my health and injuries so to come away 
with a silver, I was over the moon.”