A stroke at birth preceded her diagnoses of cerebral palsy left hemiplegia and epilepsy, leaving the middle of three daughters playing catch-up to her sisters right from the start.

But when Patterson touched the wall first at the end of an exhilarating 400m S9 freestyle final at the Tokyo Paralympics, it was just another reminder of her determination to clear the hurdles life has put in front of her.

Hungary's Zsofia Konkoly produced a storming final lap and looked to have reeled Patterson in but the 22-year-old from Wodonga, nicknamed "Lucky", proved she was anything but by digging deep into her final reserves and finding an extra gear in the final few strokes to win by eighth-hundredths of a second.

"It was nail-biter," mum Sherryn Patterson said. "I was very excited and I actually did bite off a finger nail with nerves but she brought it home, like a true champion.

"I wasn't concerned where she was on the podium though. It's always a thrill when she wins but swimming doesn't define who Lucky is. She's an amazing person inside and outside of swimming.

"She swims for her wellbeing, not so much to represent Australia. Of course, nothing in the world will ever emulate the feeling of representing your country but for her, swimming is her wellbeing and her health.

"The spasticity takes over if she's not stretching those muscles every day. It's become a huge part of her life and will continue to be a huge part of her life in the future as well, whether she's competing internationally or not.

"She'll still need to swim every day to keep herself out of a wheelchair."

Growing up on the Border was anything but easy for Patterson.

"She was always falling over and had bruises on her," Sherryn said. "I was always concerned because I thought 'this is not normal.' Her younger sister was the one walking and hanging onto the pram when it should have been vice versa.

"It's because Lakeisha was always falling over and we later learned they were drop seizures with her epilepsy. We had terrific health nurses and it's imperative you take your child to their regular visits because they pick up on all these little things.

"We were able to gain the treatment process we needed so that she could live as close to a normal life as possible. If we hadn't recognised those things, the spasticity would have taken over and she'd be wheelchair-bound."

Cheering louder than anyone from his Wodonga home was Patterson's grandfather, Bob King.

"It's so exciting, so unique," he said. "My poor wife, Joy, passed away last November and she would have been watching it with me.

"But there I am with my Apple phone on video, I'm recording it, shouting 'come on Lucky, come on Lucky, go, go!' and through the whole race, she was two metres ahead. She was maintaining that lead but in the last 10 metres, the other girl got up right beside her.

"That was too damn close for comfort.

"Here I am, in a room on my own and if anyone had walked past on the footpath, they'd wonder what on earth was going on inside.

"When she eventually touched the wall, I saw the Aussie flag they put over the water and I knew she'd done it. I was just so elated to see her there."

King may be a solo supporter these days but the pride in his grand-daughter is enough for two.

"All the newspapers we've kept over time, Joy always had them on our front door," he said. "I've tried to keep her system going.

"When you win gold medals and you're famous, the newspapers get onto the bandwagon. It was a collection my wife started when Lakeisha became famous from swimming in Rio, Glasgow and all these places around the world.

"It's quite amazing how someone who started swimming as a bit of hobby has made it all the way to the top of the tree.

"I'm 75 and life doesn't come to you, you've got to go to it. Lakeisha has really pursued it."

Patterson's world was further shaken when her parents split up when she was five. Things reached a head one day when Sherryn packed her daughters, and the cat, into the car and hit the road, starting life again.

"Sherryn had two or three jobs and she put the three girls through private school," King said. "I take my hat off to what she's done, for a single mum.

"The girls all did their HSC at a private school and it's such a credit to them.

"Lakeisha was studying architecture and she was top of the class. She always had high marks but swimming was her priority."

Inspired to compete by the London Paralympics of 2012, Patterson won her first major medal as a 14-year-old, taking bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow two years later.

World titles in 2015 and 2019 followed, sandwiching the six Paralympic medals she won in Rio: two gold, three silver and a bronze. She's now a formidable freestyler on the global stage.

"We kept saying 'little goals' but she kept going for the big ones," Sherryn laughed. "There's no stopping her and that's the exciting part.

"She's not going to stop until she's really lived life and fulfilled everything she could possibly dream of. It's great for any child to have those dreams."

Patterson has been re-classified since Rio.

"As an S9, she has two impaired limbs," Sherryn explained. "She builds no muscle tone.

"Her left leg drags, a bit like a keel, in the water and her left arm, the messages only go to her shoulder so her arm might fly in the air but it'll drop, it doesn't pull the water through.

"Effectively, she would flop to the right-hand side and sink so she has to contract her core muscles the entire time to stay buoyant on top of the water.

"She's better as a fish than she is on land."

"She's really battled on," King added. "When she's swimming, her legs go like two little logs of wood behind.

"Normally a swimmer's legs are working like a miniature outboard at the back there, giving them a bit of propulsion whereas hers drag, so it's mainly in the shoulders and the body, brute strength I suppose you'd call it.

"When she's training, she leaves home at 4.30am, does 7km in the morning, gym session, has a special athlete's diet and in the afternoon she goes back and does another 5km.

"Even when you're able-bodied, 12km is a damn good walk."

While the girls all live in Queensland these days - years spent on Bribie Island certainly didn't hurt their swimming prospects - they returned to Wodonga frequently in pre-COVID times and Patterson trains at WAVES whenever she's back in her hometown.

"Wodonga is always going to be home for us," Sherryn said.

"My dad's still there, the rest of my family is there and my Mum's buried there too.

"I got stuck down there for 10 weeks when Mum passed last year but the girls weren't able to come down to say goodbye. That was really sad but I know Lucky had my Mum help her through to get that gold medal.

"I never know what her strategies are and I never know what her times are. I've never been one of those parents.

"I know when she touches the wall and she turns around and looks at the scoreboard, whether it was a good race or not. I can tell by her reaction and she doesn't need me grilling her and saying 'that was a shocking race, what happened there?'

"She knows herself where she's gone wrong or what's happened, although it's not very often that happens."

Patterson paid tribute to Sherryn and the rest of her support network during an emotional post-race interview in Tokyo.

"It's been such a long, hard couple of years," Patterson said.

"It's really hard being away from Mum today but this is for her. I can't wait to give everybody back home a massive hug.

"It really is a team effort to get onto the starting line and I could not do any of it without them. I'm super grateful and really blessed."

The pair had to make do with a virtual hug on the day.

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"We Face-timed after she got back from her drug testing," Sherryn said.

"She was sitting up in bed, with her medal around her neck, eating a big tub of lasagne. Food comes first before anything else.

"It was a very strange year for all of us but the athletes learnt a lot about themselves and really had to dig deep - as well as the families and supporters.

"It was a very different preparation, going in and out of lockdown and not being able to train sometimes.

"It's not just the athletes, it's the family and support network that surrounds them which gets them to the finished product."

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