Plenty has happened in the past 17 years for Eliza Ault-Connell.
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The Albury wheelchair racer arrived in Tokyo on Saturday morning to contest her second Paralympics Games, almost two decades after her debut at Athens in 2004.
Ault-Connell, who lost her legs to meningococcal disease as a teenager, had 12 years away from elite sport before starting her comeback at the end of 2016, after having three children.
Upon learning she'd earned a place on her second Australian Paralympic team last year, Ault-Connell had set out to compete in five different events in her T54 classification - 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m and marathon, and also hadn't ruled out a tilt at the 100m.
But she believes the postponement of the Tokyo Games to 2021 has made her "older and a little bit wiser".
Ault-Connell has condensed her track program to the 100m and 400m, which are held on consecutive days on September 1 and 2, before a she takes on the gruelling marathon on the final day of competition on September 5.
"I decided to really focus on allowing the body to recover a bit more before each event and come out nice and strong," she said.
ALSO IN SPORT:
"The 100m and 400m are back-to-back on consecutive days, but there's a nice break before the marathon, which will give me plenty of time to jump on some rollers and get a few kilometres up again to be ready for the marathon on the final day.
"Within a training week we're covering anywhere between 100 and 150 kilometres and that's encompassing longer distance sessions, sprint sessions, interval sessions.
"The body and the mind are pretty used to being able to switch off and do the different training, so I'll be ready.
"I received a beautiful text message from my first coach Paul Angel. He basically said 17 years between drinks is a very long time, but he reiterated how proud he was and the journey it has been to get back and be representing Australia again. It's all starting to sink in."
Every elite athlete has to make enormous sacrifices, but getting to a Games during a global pandemic has brought about plenty of change for Ault-Connell.
The 39-year-old moved to Canberra at the start of the year to be able to train daily with her coach, Fred Periac, but a COVID outbreak in the nation's capital last week threw another spanner into the works.
"I moved out of my home away from my partner and children because we couldn't assure everyone had been able to avoid those locations," she said.
"I made the call and made it safely to campus at the AIS and we've been in our own little bubble keeping each other sane and healthy.
TOKYO SCHEDULE
When to see Albury's Eliza Ault-Connell race
- Wednesday, September 1: 100m - T54 heats and final
- Thursday, September 2: 400m - T54 heats and final
- Sunday: September 5: Marathon - T54
"It's been a very different preparation to what we'd thought we'd be doing.
"We were due to fly from Canberra airport (on Friday), to join the charter flight in Sydney, but the safest way for us was to hire some cars and get directly to the international terminal to get on that flight.
"We had pre-departure COVD tests, 72 and 96-hour tests, so we're all in a pretty good spot. But the advice has been assume anyone you come into contact with has COVID, so that's leading to some pretty solid hand hygiene routines.
"There were only two of us in the car and we were both wearing a mask and when we got to Sydney we switched to a more protective mask."
Ault-Connell returns to Australia for mandatory quarantine on September 6, but regardless of results, there will be celebrations.
"We get out of hotel quarantine on September 21 and there would have been a few birthdays to catch up on and celebrate," she said.
"My daughter turned 11 on Thursday, I'm turning 40 in quarantine and my partner's daughter turns nine the day before I get out of hotel quarantine, so let's just say there's going to be a lot of cake."
Ault-Connell is part of Australia's largest ever Paralympic team of 179 athletes in Tokyo.
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