“Our hearts are pumping out of our chest with pride.”

Those are the words of Great Sankey’s Paul Dawson, after he watched his daughter Kathleen win a gold medal with the Team GB mixed 4x100m medley relay team in the Tokyo Olympics.

British and European backstroke record holder Kathleen, 23, a former student of St Philip Westbrook C of E Primary School and Great Sankey High School, completed the first leg and then Adam Peaty, James Guy and Anna Hopkin took their turns in steering Team GB to victory in world record time.

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It was a packed Dawson family home in the early hours of Saturday morning, with Paul and his wife Sarah being joined by Kathleen’s boyfriend Ryan, her two siblings and their partners, as well as 89-year-old grandfather Bill all gathered to cheer home the former Warriors of Warrington ace and her team.

The joy was as electric in Great Sankey as it was poolside at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

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“As soon as she was on the box we were all standing up and were reasonably quiet at that point,” said Paul.

“But as soon as the buzzer went and she started swimming we were urging her on to say the least. It was full-on.

“We’ve got a little dog that was jumping about in excitement and probably a little bit anxious to see us all so animated, although he should have known because we’d been like that particularly when she was doing the individual 100m backstroke final earlier in the week.

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“It was an absolutely brilliant race. She didn’t get quite the start that she would normally like to get, though she powered back beautifully and really put in a top-class performance.”

Had the world not been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, they would likely have all been in Tokyo to support full-time professional athlete Kathleen, who is on the swimming programme at Stirling University in Scotland.

The family have been all over the world supporting her swimming, including Australia, Hungary and Canada for major championships.

“We’d been saving up for four or five years to go to Japan and it was desperate that we couldn’t do it because of Covid,” said Paul.

“All of us had mixed feelings about it, desperately wanting to go there and also concern for her being over there but equally we wanted just to be as close to it as we could be.

“Fortunately, we’ve got video calls and we’ve been able to keep in touch sporadically because that’s how it goes when a swimmer goes away to an event - they are very focused on the swimming.”

Kathleen did give the family a video call after the race.

“We all congratulated her, told her how much we loved her, that we’re missing her and looking forward to seeing her,” said Paul.

 

“We’re absolutely delighted with her and the level of performance that she’s been able to put in, and of course the dedication she’s shown throughout the years to keep this career on track.

“She had a terrible injury in November, 2018, when she ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee when she was altitude training in Flagstaff in America with Team GB.

“She came home and was operated on within a week in Glasgow. That could have been a terminal injury as far as competitive swimming was concerned. But she got a really good surgeon and a really good outcome from her surgery.”

Paul highlighted a quality that helped her get through that situation and realise her dream of becoming an Olympian.

“Determination. She’s got a real determination to win. If you put her in a running race, she would want to win it, she doesn’t just make up the numbers,” he said.

“If she’s not getting something done that she wants, then she’ll repeat the process and get it done. She’s a very determined lady.

“Kathleen’s a believer in the process you go through when you’re competing. It’s a process and if you execute the process well then you’re a long way down the road to success.”

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Picture: PA

Being in Japan to win her first Olympic Games medal probably further enhanced the experience for Kathleen judging by her passion for the country.

Paul revealed: “When her swimming is over I think she will probably return to one of her absolute favourite pastimes or occupations, and that’s art.

“She draws and paints in many different styles but Japanese manga is one of her favourite forms.

“She loves Japanese culture in general. Japanese food is among her absolute favourites.

“We used to take her to the national swimming championships in Sheffield. We’d be living out of a hotel for a week at a time because she would qualify in seven or more events every year.

“So we’d be eating out a lot and Wagamama was where she would want to go nearly every night for its Japanese food.”

Paul recalled the early days and when he first came to realise Kathleen’s potential, after the family had moved to Great Sankey from Kirkcaldy on the east coast of Scotland when she was three years old.

“She took formal swimming lessons from about the age of seven, and then she graduated from there to the Warriors of Warrington under Darren Ashley,” said Paul.

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“Kathleen very quickly established herself there and it soon became apparent that we would be having to get up early in a morning, and often, for years.

“My wife Sarah and I did so joyously. Darren identified to us that Kathleen had something special about her.

“He reckoned that she had an aptitude whereby he could tell her to swim in a particular style and to change her stroke in a particular manner and she would execute it and continue to execute it until it was time to modify the style or stroke in another way as she grew up.

“Once she started competing and picking up trophies we started believing she was a special swimmer. Darren always said that she could make a living at it and that she’ll end up swimming in the Olympics.

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Picture: PA

“You have to take those things with a pinch of salt, and I believe I did, but the closer and closer she got to maturity the more and more I believed this girl has got what it takes to achieve that.”