Kathleen Dawson: Kirkcaldy-born swimmer reaches second Olympics after 'rollercoaster' injury-hell

Olympic gold medallist Dawson, 26, aced the 100m backstroke, finishing inside the 59.89 nomination time to fulfil her goal of reaching a second Olympics following an injury-hit three years.

She was part of the mixed 4x100m medley relay team that stormed to gold at Tokyo 2020 and is the current British record holder in the 50m and 100m backstroke.

However, it has been a tough time for the University of Stirling swimmer, who has had to recover from sciatica, resulting in months of missed competition.

Shortly after returning from the European Championships in May 2021, where she became the continental record-holder after leading off the women’s medley relay in 58.08, Dawson suffered a bulging disc in her back.

“It’s just been such a rollercoaster the last three years,” said Dawson. “So to have it all pay off and to be going to the Olympics again, I just can’t believe it.

“I can’t look at it in a negative way because I’ve just come back from probably my lowest time after my highest point after the summer (Olympics), so I’m just happy to be here.

“It has been a big test of proving myself and my mental character I guess: I think there were a lot of times that I could have just chucked it in and been like well I’ve gotten a gold medal at the last Olympics and I don’t need to carry on.

“But it’s not what I want to do: I knew I wanted to get back to this place so I am just so thankful I could actually be here and post times like that and qualify for the Olympics.”

On her injury-hell, Dawson explained how she struggled to even “get out bed” as her sciatica wrecked havoc with not only her swimming career, but her life in general.

She told Scottish Athletics: “It was 2021, and having just qualified for the Olympics, we went out to the Europeans, and the week I got back from Europeans I felt a something that shot down my leg, like electricity and I found out it was a bulging disc in the S1/L1 region of my spine, and that in turn gave me sciatica.

"So I competed at the Olympics with sciatica, and straight after the Olympics my back just gave up on me. I couldn’t bend over to put socks on, it was hard just getting out of bed.

“I knew if I was going to make it back, then this was the goal I had to set for myself to be back to make the Paris Olympics. This was it. My Stirling team have been unbelievably supportive of me during this time.

"They knew I wanted to come back here at this point of time, and they made it possible for me to do so. They set up me going down to the Intensive Rehab Unit at Bisham, and that’s not something typical that swimmers can do, it’s usually land-based sports that do that.

"So I’ve very grateful they managed to make that happen for me, without them I wouldn’t be here.”

With the top finisher in each race earning selection to the British team (pending official confirmation), Dawson will now have the chance to add to her championship medal haul that includes five European Championship golds and that precious Olympic title.