{"id":420299,"date":"2024-09-03T20:16:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T20:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=420299"},"modified":"2024-09-04T00:11:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T00:11:40","slug":"major-move-homesickness-behind-aussie-teens-raw-emotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=420299","title":{"rendered":"Major move, homesickness behind Aussie teen's raw emotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\ufeffARIS:<\/strong> Memories of moving some 3660 kilometres across Australia and struggling with homesickness flashed in Alex Saffy's mind as he teared up at the Paralympic<\/a> pool on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old won a bronze medal and set a new Oceanic record in the men's 100m butterfly S10 at the Paris La Defense Arena, then swelled with emotion as he reflected on a move from Bunbury, situated about 168 kilometres south of Perth, to Canberra.<\/p>\n

He made the move at 16 to take up a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and begin studying at the University of Canberra as an elite athlete.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie dealt 0.01 devastation three days after DQ<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Glandular fever denied as Aussie wins gold, breaks record\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Devastation' as leader falls metres from finish line<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/p>\n

The major life decision culminated in Saffy, who has cerebral palsy, snaring bronze with a 100m butterfly time of 56.61 seconds\ufeff.<\/p>\n

"Didn't know anyone [when I moved to Canberra]," he told reporters.<\/p>\n

"Left my family, went to a new school. It was a big change, I'm happy it's paid off.<\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/p>\n

"Homesickness\ufeff was a big one. I love my family, we're all so close. So leaving them was such a big sacrifice.<\/p>\n

"I've really questioned if everything in this sport is worth it for me and I've doubted it a lot, and that medal is such a relief\ufeff."<\/p>\n

Italian Stefano Raimondi took gold with a time of 55.02\ufeff as Ihor Nimchenko of Ukraine secured silver in 55.21, while Australian Col Pearse finished fourth in 57.24.<\/p>\n

Saffy's mum and dad, younger brother, older sister and some friends were in the stands of the Paris La Defense Arena cheering on the young gun.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Although he spent years 11 and 12 in Canberra, he was a student at a West Australian school via distance.<\/p>\n

"I love Bunbury," he said.<\/p>\n

"I grew up there and made so many\ufeff good memories there."<\/p>\n

\"Aussie<\/p>\n

He competed at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022 and is making his Paralympic debut in France.<\/p>\n

"Three years of training for me has led to that point [winning Paralympic bronze], so it was very emotional," Saffy said.<\/p>\n

Australia's Rachael Watson claimed her own bronze medal in the same session, finishing third in the women's 100m freestyle S3.<\/p>\n

Watch every moment, every medal of the Paralympic Games Paris 2024 live and free on Channel 9, 9Gem and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Plus, every event streaming ad free, live and on demand with 4K on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Aussie<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old clocked 1:38.92 to pick up her third Paralympic medal from three Games, after capturing gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.<\/p>\n

"I'm really proud of myself," Watson told reporters when asked about collecting her third Paralympic medal.<\/p>\n

"But I'm more proud of my team around me; the people who \ufeffactually support me to be able to swim the race I'm able to swim.<\/p>\n

"A lot of people obviously don't see the behind-the-scenes work that goes into it.<\/p>\n

"Being able able to pull it together when there's been challenges is something really special for me and my team."<\/p>\n

Help Australia's para-athletes chase their sporting dreams!<\/strong> Click here to donate<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Aussie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P\ufeffARIS: Memories of moving some 3660 kilometres across Australia and struggling with homesickness flashed in Alex Saffy's mind as he teared up at the Paralympic […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":420301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=420299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420305,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420299\/revisions\/420305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/420301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=420299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=420299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=420299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}