Arabic version: بيلاندو نيكولسون تحرز برونزية سباق الظهر في غلاسكو

According to ABC News, Vicky Belando Nicholson won bronze in the women’s 100m backstroke S9 at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Sunday night. The Australian swimmer was sixth at the turn before surging home to claim her first major medal.

Belando Nicholson said the result marked a significant change from her early relationship with swimming. “It’s a bit of a 360 moment,” she said. “When I first started swimming, I was always scared of the water and now to be a bronze medallist for the Commonwealth Games is just absolutely amazing and hopefully there’s more to come.”

Her early life included a traumatic 2008 refugee-boat incident in the Mediterranean, when she was pulled lifeless from the water as a baby. Her sister, Destiny, was aboard, while their birth mother died. The sisters later lived in an orphanage in Malta before being adopted by Australian Ewan and his Spanish wife Susana. The family lived in Malta and Spain before moving to Australia in 2021.

Belando Nicholson has fibular hemimelia, a condition in which part of the smaller bone in the lower leg is missing. In Glasgow, she shared her first Australian-team final and first podium with 16-year-old friend Gemma Sellick, who won silver. Belando Nicholson said she had not expected the medal, adding: “Coming into this event I wasn’t ranked high enough, but I ended up coming third, so anything can happen. Just believe.”