As an aspiring Paralympian, Grace Brimelow is fast becoming a golden girl whose name we could be seeing on the international stage as soon as Paris 2024.
The Sunshine Coast Grammar School student is gaining major national recognition and has been selected to participate in several development camps in the coming weeks.
Her most recent success includes two gold medals in the aquathon multiclass division at the School Sport Australia Triathlon and Aquathlon in Hervey Bay.
Grace was born with Cri Du Chat syndrome (a rare genetic disorder caused by missing pieces on a particular chromosome), which impacts her physical capacity and strength.
Her mother Simone Pearce tells My Weekly Preview that sport has given the 15-year-old a sense of purpose and confidence.
For the aquathon, she competed in a 200 metre swim and one kilometre run, backing it up the next day with a run-swim-run: one kilometre run, 200 metre swim and another one kilometre run.
“She did really well,” Ms Pearce says.
“It was the first time there were multiclass events in schools’ national triathlon so it was new for everybody.
“Grace ran in the national cross country a couple of months ago, too, and she got a gold medal in that.”
From her achievements this year, Grace has been selected to participate in a national para-development camp for triathlon in Melbourne in early October.
“Triathlon Australia have deployed the program to develop para-athletes to go to the Paralympics,” Ms Pearce says.
“She’s also been invited to the para-pathways swimming camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in the second week of the school holidays.”
Ms Pearce says Grace has her sights firmly set on future Paralympics, aiming for Paris 2024, Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032.
“That’s the pathway she is on and she is loving it,” Ms Pearce says.
“I’m immensely proud of her.
“What I’m proud of is the person she is becoming and how hard she works and that she has this complete matter-of-fact drive about her.”
