Tokyo Paralympics 2021: Vanessa Low favourite for long jump gold

There’s a massive problem being a long jumper in lockdown. Just ask Australia’s gold medal favourite at the Paralympics, Vanessa Low.

Vanessa Low competing for Germany in Rio. She is now representing Australia.

Rugby league players were able to build home made gyms, rowers were on machines and cyclists were able to set up heat chambers in their garages during lockdown.

But Vanessa Low found it was far trickier to train, with few garages able to accommodate what she needed to do.

“You just can’t long jump in the garage,” said Low, the German-born Australian married to sprinter Scott Reardon.

“We did other training in our courtyard, we did drills, lots of visualisation, we just had to figure out what we could and couldn’t do.”

Vanessa Low after her mighty jump in Rio.

Despite her hindered lead-up at her base in Canberra, Low believes she is ready to make her mark in the Games arena.

“I feel physically and mentally ready. I am in a great space,” said Low, who admitted lockdown gave her body the chance to rest and heal from years of training and competing at an elite level.

“Physically because I had the chance to rest up a bit (in lockdown). I’m not a spring chicken any more.”

Rio Olympics gold medallist Vanessa Low.

Low goes into the T61 long jump as the outright gold medal favourite after a personal best of 5.32m last year.

In Rio five years ago, she won gold with a leap of 4.93m - a leap which smashed her own long jump world record by 14cm.

Now at her third Paralympic Games, Low is the only female track athlete with two above knee amputations.

Low lost her left leg when struck by a train at a railway platform in Germany after losing her balance.

In a coma for two months, doctors were forced to amputate her other leg as well and it took the teenager two years to learn to walk using her prosthesis.

While there has been much to talk about Low retiring at the end of the Tokyo Paralympics, she has indicated she now wants to compete on.

“At this point I’d like to do a few more years. Definitely Paris is on the menu,” she said.

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Originally published as Tokyo Paralympics 2021: Vanessa Low favourite for long jump gold