Commonwealth Games medallist Vicky Belando Nicholson had each motive to be petrified of water

When athlete particulars are listed, Vicky Belando Nicholson’s birthplace is “unknown”. 

We do not know the place her journey to Glasgow started, however we do know one of many earliest, terrifying moments when a younger child was pulled lifeless from the Mediterranean after falling off a refugee boat in 2008.

Her sister, Destiny, was aboard. Her start mom, whose title we additionally have no idea, had died.

Vicky and Destiny had been taken to an orphanage in Malta, the place they lived for a few years.

At the identical time, two individuals simply occurred to be making an attempt to undertake a toddler: Australian Ewan and Spanish spouse Susana.

“We got a cold call from social services saying: ‘We’ve got two girls here, two and three years old, who are in an orphanage in Malta. Would you be interested in adopting them?'” Ewan informed the Sydney Morning Herald this month.

The household lived in Malta, then Spain, earlier than shifting to Australia in 2021.

Vicky – who has a situation known as fibular hemimelia, which means she is lacking a part of the smaller bone within the decrease leg – had each motive on the earth to by no means wish to see water once more.

On Sunday night time in Glasgow, she received Commonwealth Games bronze within the girls’s 100m backstroke S9 with a frankly gorgeous swim, coming from sixth on the flip to win her first little bit of main jewelry.

“It’s a bit of a 360 moment,” she stated.

“When I first started swimming, I was always scared of the water and now to be a bronze medallist for the Commonwealth Games is just absolutely amazing and hopefully there’s more to come.

“Coming into this occasion I wasn’t ranked excessive sufficient, however I ended up coming third, so something can occur. Just consider.”

To make the second all of the extra particular, she was joined on her first podium in her first closing at her first meet with the Australian group, by her 16-year-old bestie, silver medallist Gemma Sellick.

“I’m so pleased with her,” Sellick stated.

“I do know we have each labored so onerous for this and it makes the second really feel even higher understanding I can share it with Vicky and really grateful that we bought to share our first collectively.”

The moment was almost too perfect to wish for.

“This was not even a thought I had, I used to be not anticipating this in any respect,” Belando Nicholson said.

“To do it with my greatest good friend is definitely insane.”

For a younger girl who has had a lot give attention to her exceptional historical past, this appears like the start of a spectacular future.