While the delayed Tokyo Paralympics took place in 2021, Faye Rogers was preparing to start university, months after competing at the Great Britain Olympic swimming trials as an 18-year-old.
Now she is aiming to make it to the Paris Paralympics – which only became a possibility after a life-changing moment that she was told would end her career in the pool.
Rogers was injured in a car accident on the day she was supposed to move to Aberdeen in September 2021.
It left the Stockton-on-Tees woman with several open fractures to her elbow, which was also dislocated, and a severed ulna nerve, all of which resulted in permanent damage to her arm.
“About three weeks after the accident, the consultant sat me down and I was told they could save my arm but I wouldn’t be able to compete again,” she told BBC Sport.
“Afterwards, I turned to my mum, who was at the consultation with me, and just said ‘Watch me’.
“I got back into the pool and just started kicking and then about four months later someone asked me if I had thought about Para-swimming and it took off from there.”
Rogers, who is studying biochemistry at the University of Aberdeen, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the sport, winning gold in the S10 100m butterfly at last year’s Para Swimming World Championships in Manchester, as well as bronzes in the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley.
The 21-year-old says that she is “excited” about what 2024 can bring and “really proud of how far I have come”.