It was the swimmer’s fifth time at the Paralympic Games and her final time completing after announcing that she will be retiring from the sport at the age of 29
Ellen Keane explained that she had a different experience at the 2024 Paralympic Games because she knew she was retiring afterwards.She is now looking forward to trying out new experiences and following a different path, but reflected on her last time at the Paralympics.
She told RSVP Live: “I wasn’t as nervous as I have been before and I didn’t find the crowd intimidating at all. The crowd for me was incredible and they were so electric. “I had little moments where I just stopped and reflected on, ‘Oh, this is the last time that I’ll do this. This is the last time that I will do that.’ It was really lovely that I realised that and that “I realised how special the moments were. I’m going to have those memories forever now, whereas, I think that other athletes that didn’t know that they were retiring might not actually remember their last race, their swim and the last time they did something, but I do.
“If your goals are to make a World Championship team, to make the European Championships or to even make a Nationals and you’re not getting there, that’s when you have to start asking yourself the question why.”
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