YEARS of hard work came to fruition on Wednesday night when Sussex Inlet's Jasmine Greenwood was named in the Australian Paralympic swim team for the Tokyo Games.
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The Shoalhaven High School student opened the week-long competition at the South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre with strong showings in the women's SM10 200-metre individual medley (where she broke the Australian record) and 100-metre butterfly.
The Bay and Basin Amateur Swim Club athlete then turned her attention's to the women's MC 100m freestyle and women's MC 100m backstroke.
In the former, she swam a new personal best of 1:02.03, which broke her own Australian record.
The 16-year-old also swam a personal best (1:09.53) time in the backstroke final.
Both these times were under the Tokyo qualifying mark, giving Greenwood three performances from her four races better than the Paralympic Games benchmark.
"I am beyond pleased with my swims at these trials," Greenwood said.
"This was my first ever Paralympic trials so I was incredibly nervous to race but once I started swimming, things started looking really positive."
These four strong performances in the pool cemented Greenwood's spot in the 32-person squad for August's games.
"I found out I had made the team a few hours before the last session of the trials, before the announcement," she said.
"I still had one more race to swim at that point, so in my last race which was the 100m backstroke, I felt incredibly relieved and I really enjoyed that swim."
The Bernie Regan Sporting Trust grant recipient and her 31 Dolphins teammates were then introduced one by one on the pool deck, where they received their Tokyo tickets.
"Getting my Tokyo plane ticket was such a significant moment in my life," she said.
"I've wanted to race at the Paralympics my whole life and when I made my first team in 2017, that was when I realised I really could have a shot at it in 2020.
"To now be able to say I am going to Tokyo is surreal."
As she alludes to, Greenwood has competed all around the world at international competition, including the 2018 Commonwealth Games, but to her, this is a dream come true.
"To finally becoming a Paralympian is unbelievable," she said.
"To me, being a Paralympian makes me incredibly proud, especially being part of a team full of such incredible diversity.
"It's amazing to be part of such an inspirational group of humans, who will get together in Tokyo to represent Australia in just a few months time."
While at the August 24 to September 5 competition, Greenwood is expected to compete in the women's S10 100m freestyle, women's SM10 200m IM, women's S10 100m butterfly and women's S10 100m backstroke as well as potentially some relay events.
"My main goals across all my events at Tokyo will be to swim my absolute best," she said.
"Winning a medal would be an incredible way on top off swimming my very best.
"I hope to achieve even more personal bests and do my country proud."
Greenwood will now return to training before she jets off to the Japanese capital to ensure she is at peak fitness come August 24.
"My training plan now leading into Tokyo will be to really work on executing my races efficiently, so I can get the most out of myself," she said.
"I'm also going to work with my physiotherapist and exercise physiologists at BaiMed, to ensure I can be feeling amazing when I arrive in Japan.
"My incredible coaches at Bay and Basin, Bob [McEvoy] and Gray [Parkes], have done an exceptional job in preparing me for my success so far and I cannot express enough how very grateful I am to be coached by them.
"They will be by my side throughout my Tokyo campaign and I can't wait to see what swimming has in store for me in the next few months."