Australian swimmer Meg Harris was in complete disbelief after claiming gold in the women’s 50m freestyle, all without opening her eyes.
Harris claimed her first gold of the meet on the final night in Singapore to go with silver medals in the women’s 400m medley and as part of Australia’s women’s 4x100m medley relay.
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And her incredible swim on Sunday night was made all the more impressive by the fact that she did it by swimming the entire lap with her eyes shut.
Which is why, as she looked up at the board showing her time of 24.02s, she was seen saying “What the f**k?”.
Harris got off to a slow start before storming home to grab the gold ahead of Qingfeng Wu (24.26) and Yujie Cheng (24.28).
You can watch Meg Harris’ incredible swim in the player above.
And it took several seconds for the 23-year-old to truly realise she had won as Harris revealed post-race she has adopted the bizarre habit of shutting her eyes while swimming.
“I swim with my eyes closed, so I had no idea where I was in the race, so when I turned around it was pretty shocking,” Harris told Cate Campbell on Channel 9 post-race.
“It’s normal for me,” Harris said post-race, speaking about how her eyes were shut.
“I do it a lot in the 50m and in the 100m, I always do it on the second lap.
“So I’m not quite sure what it is, I do it in training as well, but I guess it’s just like trying to focus on my stroke … not 100 per cent, that’s just what happens.”
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The response left Campbell stunned: “Wait, so when you’re swimming, you’re blind and deaf. Is that right?” Campbell said, referring to the fact that Harris is partially deaf.
Harris nodded, saying, “pretty much”.
“Well, whatever you’re doing, it’s working for you,” Harris replied.
It was a beautiful moment for Harris, who took gold in front of her mum, dad, sister and grandparents, in what was the first time her grandparents had ever flown overseas to watch her race.
Australia finished with eight gold, six silver and six bronze, only second on the medal tally to the United States, nine gold, 11 silver and nine bronze.
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