2024 Paris Paralympic Games Moreton Bay coverage: Ricky Betar in finals action

Photo: Courtesy of Swimming Australia/Delly Carr

Morayfield’s Ricky Betar has swum the race of his career to take bronze at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games this morning (AEST).

Betar, who qualified second fastest for the event in the heats last night and was racing from lane five, had a blistering start off the blocks to again lead the field in the first leg (butterfly).

He turned first and maintained his lead in the backstroke leg, turning first into the breaststroke leg where Canada’s Nicholas Bennett took the lead. Betar dropped back to third during this leg and stayed with the two fastest swimmers, Bennett and Great Britain’s Rhy Darbey.

Betar was just pipped at the wall by Darbey to earn bronze with a time of 2:08.69, which was an Oceanic Record. Darbey’s time was 2:08.61, while gold medallist Bennett set a new Paralympic Record with a time of 2:06.05.

Betar, who is autistic, is currently ranked sixth in the world in this event.

His family was in the crowd cheering as he raced, and crying when they realised what he had achieved.

Ricky told Channel 9 he was a 'bit underwhelmed' and had been hoping for 'second at least' but said 'Rhys and Nick were the better men'. 

He smashed his personal best by two seconds and said support from family and friends meant much to him. 

"I could feel their energy, their yelling all coming towards me. To be able to perform that in this pool right here ... I can't complain," he said. 

The 20-year-old said being in the lane beside the world record holder was a huge driver during the race. 

"It helps a lot, you know. Knowing who he is, personally, and my technique in freestyle ... seeing someone ahead of me, helps a lot to feel like as if I'm trying to catch onto them. It really helps the freestyle bit," he told Channel 9.

Paris is his second Paralympics. In Tokyo three years ago, he won a silver medal with Australia’s mixed 4x100m freestyle relay S14 team.

In Tokyo he also qualified for the finals in the 200m freestyle S14 and 100m butterfly S14 and finished seventh and eighth respectively.

In the lead-up to the Paris Games, Betar was training twice daily at UniSC on the Sunshine Coast, under Paralympic Hub head coach Harley Connolly.

It has been revealed he had a tear in his swimsuit before last Thursday’s 100m butterfly S14 heats, in which he did not make the final.

Tomorrow, he swims in the 100m backstroke S14 heats at 6.34pm (AEST).