Silver Sammi strikes again as Paralympic medal haul mounts

Sammi Kinghorn is now a four-time Paralympic medallist

Through the darkness of her visor, you could just about see the shock and elation in Sammi Kinghorn’s eyes, both in equal measure, after earning another Paralympic silver, this time in the women’s 1,500m T54.

This felt like a throw of the dice in an event she has little experience in at this level. How it paid off at the Stade de France.

Kinghorn followed up second in the 800m T53 with another excellent performance, which might have been even better had events unfolded slightly differently.

"I'm kind of blown away," Kinghorn told BBC Scotland, with a smile as wide and full of pride as you could imagine.

"I thought [I had] probably more chance of coming fourth, squeeze for third. To get a silver medal is absolutely incredible.

"I kind of got a bit disorientated. I stopped at 200m to go because I thought we crossed the line, so I'm going to watch that back and be really annoyed at myself.

"I'm still learning. That's the first time I've done 1500m at that sort of level. I need to count my laps is what I'm learning."

Counting medals might become a past time too and what we’re learning is that Kinghorn seems ready to challenge in whatever event she competes in.

This was a tricky, slippery surface during which two athletes crashed out of contention at the midway point.

The 28-year-old from Melrose retained laser like focus to home in on her prize.

"You’re close and you’re elbowing and you're jostling for position," she explained.

"You're going 20 miles an hour on the wet. In the spray it's quite hard to concentrate out there when it's so slippy and you're going at such high speeds.

"I just kind of thought I’d throw myself in the 1500m to see what happened and I just did not expect that."

'Medal always just the cherry on top'

With two silvers already in Paris, building on bronze and silver in Tokyo, Kinghorn has already bettered her previous Paralympic performances.

She’s, potentially, not finished there.

"It's incredible," she enthused. "I think after Tokyo, I always thought that the medal was going to be the thing that made you happy.

"I've learned as I'm getting older that that's not the thing that makes you happy. I've kind of being using this analogy of building a cake and your whole life has to be this beautiful, perfect cake and the medal should always just be the cherry on top.

"The cake is perfectly fine without it. Coming here and winning medals is the cherry on top."

There’s ample opportunity for that cherry to expand with the possibility of three more events for Kinghorn at these Paralympics, and the chance to go one better than the two silvers she’s already attained.

"Gosh, it'd be amazing to win a gold medal," she considered, as though it had never entered her mind before.

"I'm just buzzing with this whole experience and every year and every time I come here, I'm learning more and more."