Stephen Clegg dedicated his second gold medal of the 2024 Paralympics to his mum after triumphing in a tightly-contested men’s S12 100m butterfly final.
Clegg, the world record holder in the event, was pushed all the way to the line but touched home first in 57.49 seconds.
Dzmitry Salei, a neutral Paralympic athlete hailing from Belarus, took silver, with bronze going to Azerbaijan’s Raman Salei.
It was Clegg’s second gold in Paris after he won the S12 100m backstroke earlier in the Games.
Afterwards he thanked his mother Moira – who was celebrating her birthday, as well as her son’s victory, on Saturday.
“I don’t even know how to begin with my mum, she has always supported me,” Clegg said.
“When I’ve struggled she has always been there to encourage me, whatever I wanted to do she had my back which is really special.
“Me, my sisters and brother are lucky to have her – she’s four foot 11 and rammed with love.”
Clegg’s win earned the 18th gold of an impressive campaign for GB’s swimmers.
The swimming squad have won 32 medals at these Games, more than any other sport – short of the 47 attained at Rio 2016, but having secured more golds than eight years ago.
For Clegg, gold in the event where he has held the world record since 2021 provides redemption following the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago, where he was narrowly beaten in the final.
Here, the 28-year-old Scot managed to keep his fingertips ahead of the rest of the field, as the top five finishers were separated by less than a second.
Clegg was third at the halfway point, but produced a powerful 31-second final 50m to ensure he would not suffer another Paralympic heartbreak.
He came home just 0.43secs ahead of Dzmitry Salei, and a further 0.21secs from the other Salei brother, Raman.
France’s Kylian Portal, 17, missed out on a medal at his home Games by just 0.04secs, and Clegg made sure to commiserate the tearful teenager after the race.
“I wasn’t sure when I touched the wall if I got it, I didn’t want to celebrate too hard,” the Briton said.
Now Clegg, whose sister Libby and brother James are also GB Paralympic medallists, wants to use his profile from these Games to help other visually impaired people.
“I want to reassess what impact I can have on Para-sport, on visually impaired athletes,” he said.
“It is a real struggle for people with visual impairments, we have shockingly high levels of anxiety and depression, something needs to be heavily looked at.
“Hopefully off the back of this I can be some sort of role model.”
Tai wins bronze after ‘silliest’ race
Earlier, Alice Tai earned her fifth medal of the 2024 Games – and GB’s 31st in the pool – in “one of the silliest races I ever swam” as she won bronze in the women’s S8 100m butterfly on the final day of competition in La Defense Arena.
Tai stormed out of the blocks and led by more than a second at the halfway point and by a significant margin with 20 metres remaining.
However, she slowed significantly in the final stages, allowing USA’s Jessica Long to overtake her for gold while Viktoriia Ishchiulova, a Russian competing as a neutral Paralympic athlete, won silver.
Tai’s GB team-mate Brock Whiston finished fourth.
“It’s probably one of the silliest races I ever swam. My coach told me to feel the first 50m, and it felt really nice,” Tai said with a laugh after the race.
“Then it got to the last 20 metres, and it started getting worse and worse to the point where I didn’t care where I finished.
“So to get the bronze is great – my best time this season would have won it so there’s always that bit in the back of my mind, but honestly I’m tired after this week.”
Tai has been one of Britain’s most successful athletes at these Games with two gold medals – in the S8 50m freestyle and SB13 100m breaststroke – a silver and now two bronzes.
It is a significant return for the 25-year-old, who had her lower leg amputated in 2022 after years of constant pain, and essentially had to relearn to swim.
She admitted the fatigue of the week caught up with her in the final few metres of her last race in Paris.
“With my [butterfly], it’s a real mixed bag – sometimes I go out like that and I’m OK coming back,” Tai said. “But I’m really fatigued, mentally after the 50m freestyle I shut down, I’m done.
“I’m happy with all my performances, I know I couldn’t have done more in that race. I’m happy, and excited to go home.”
Tai can also look back on these Games much more fondly than her previous experience at Rio 2016, where she had suicidal thoughts as she struggled with undiagnosed ADHD.
“A lot of my friends are commenting on how much happier I am, they can see it,” the seven-time Paralympic medallist said.
“I got two medals in Rio, and I went up to my room and just cried. I put a face on for the media, but deep down I was miserable, didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to be alive.
“Now I can say I have enjoyed every day – even rubbish swims like that, I’m genuinely happy with third and a swim four seconds off my best.”
Elsewhere on Saturday, Faye Rogers finished fourth in the women’s 200m SM10 individual medley.
Rogers, who won 100m butterfly gold earlier this week, is a world bronze medallist in this event and led after the first leg – her favoured butterfly stroke.
However, she fell down the field as the race progressed as Zhang Meng of China took gold.
In the morning heats, Iona Winnifrith, the youngest member of the ParalympicsGB squad, failed to make it through to the final after finishing 10th quickest in the women’s S7 50m butterfly heats.
Winnifrith, 13, won a silver medal in the SB7 100m breaststroke earlier in her debut Games.
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