Family means everything to two-time Paralympic silver medallist Becky Redfern as she aims to retain her world title at this week’s Para-swimming World Championships in Madeira, Portugal.
“I love everything being busy and being kept on my toes,” Redfern told BBC Sport’s Kate Grey.
“But I need my family around for support and that is what they are best at.”
Redfern, who has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition, won gold in the SB13 100m breaststroke in London in 2019 but discovered soon afterwards that she had triumphed while pregnant.
She thought her swimming career might be at an end but the Covid pandemic and the year’s delay to the Tokyo Games gave her another chance.
“I made the decision that the Games were waiting for me. It felt like fate and I made the decision to try and make it,” she says.
“My biggest motivation was thinking about having a medal to bring home to Patrick. That kept me going through all those training hours.”
Thanks to the support of her partner and family, who looked after Patrick while Redfern was in Tokyo, and the help of British Swimming, Redfern made it to Japan and came home with her second Paralympic medal.
“The Paralympics was probably the worst three weeks ever, which is funny because it was meant to be the best three weeks,” she reflects.
“Everything was really hard to cope with. We were put in isolation from day two and that was tough. I was ready to come home before the Games started and it was my coaches and teammates that kept me going and I am glad they did.
“Winning the silver medal was amazing. When I got home Patrick didn’t know what it was and he picked it up and it was so heavy he dropped it almost broke his toe.
“It was a surreal moment holding my son, one of my greatest achievements, in one arm and my other greatest achievement, my Paralympic medal, in the other.”
Redfern is among a host of Tokyo medallists on the 29-strong GB team for the Worlds, which begin on Sunday and run until Saturday, 18 June, where she will be joined by individual gold medallists Maisie Summers-Newton, Bethany Firth, Reece Dunn, Tully Kearney and Hannah Russell.
Also included is Alice Tai who won seven golds at the last worlds but missed Tokyo through injury and earlier this year had her right leg amputated below the knee because of increased pain in her foot.
However, the two leading nations from the swimming events in Tokyo – China and Russia – will not have any representatives at the event and while Ukraine has entered a team, it is unclear how their preparations have been affected by the ongoing conflict in the country.
Redfern’s main rival will be Tokyo gold medallist Elena Krawzow although the German is currently undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour after the Games.
The event in Madeira will be held without spectators, which means that most of Redfern’s family will have to wait until the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later this summer to see her compete in person.
But she will have family support at the event with older brother Matthew among the debutants on the team.
He has the same eye condition as his sister and has come out of retirement as GB target a medal in the new 4x100m relay for visually-impaired athletes which will make its Paralympic debut in Paris.
“Becky has always paved the way for me but if I win a Paralympic gold before she does, she says she won’t be happy,” he said.
“But getting to race together in a relay at a Paralympics would be one of the best moments of my life, not just my career. It would be incredible.”
