Life Uncut - Told She'd Never Walk, Talk, or Live. Then She Won Gold at the Paralympics - Uncut with Alexa Leary

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

This week we sat down with Alexa Leary; two-time Paralympic gold medallist, world record holder, and author of Sink or Swim. You might know her as Lex. You definitely know that viral clip of her dancing in Paris. In 2021, Lex was 19 and training to be a professional triathlete when a cycling accident left her with one of the most severe traumatic brain injuries Royal Brisbane Hospital had ever seen. She wasn't supposed to survive. She had seven brain operations. Doctors told her family twice to come and say goodbye. Three years later, she broke the world record in Paris. Lex talks about what life with a TBI actually looks like day to day: the four years of memory wiped, waking up not knowing where she is, the boyfriend she couldn't remember, and the really dark period she's written about in her book for the first time. She is funny, warm, completely unfiltered, and has a really unique perspective on her second life. We chat: The accident and the miracle chain of events that saved her Four to five years of memory wiped - including her relationship, her best friend, and a tattoo she has no memory of getting What a traumatic brain injury actually looks like from the inside & the stuff nobody sees The really low period in the middle of it all, and what she wants anyone in that place to know How swimming went from rehab to two gold medals and a world record in Paris The quantum healer who predicted her medal haul from the ICU and was right Her new book and the chapter she never thought she’d share Timestamps 0:00 — Introducing Lex 8:40 — The accident, the miracle chain that saved her, and 111 days in hospital 17:10 — Four years of memory wiped — including her mum, her boyfriend, and a tattoo she doesn't remember 21:10 — The invisible side of TBI nobody sees behind the gold medals 28:20 — How swimming went from rehab to two gold medals in Paris 34:25 — Standing on the podium — and the viral dancing moment 42:00 — New music, the LA Paralympics, and what's next   You can follow Lex on Instagramand grab Sink or SwimSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi guys, and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Brittany. I'm Laura. And today we have a very special guest in studio. May I say, you look like a ray of sunshine. I know you're wearing blue, but I've not seen someone so glowy in my life. You have this beautiful tan, this beautiful like blonde sun-drenched hair. I'm talking about Alexa Leary. Now, some of you might know her as Lex. If the name doesn't ring a bell, I can guarantee you've seen her. There was that viral clip of her dancing at the Paralympics that went off. I think that was after you won gold. Today, we're interviewing Lex about,

I guess, both of her lives. Lex had a life before she had a bike accident and she had a traumatic brain injury when she was 19. And that was back in 2021. She was on her way to becoming a very successful triathlete. Her parents were bike riders and she was very, very athletic. She was on a bike ride one day when she had a terrible accident and had a traumatic brain injury, which put her in hospital for 111 days. She wasn't supposed to survive. Nobody thought she was going to survive. Then nobody would think she would walk again or talk again or just live a normal, wholesome life. And she has proven absolutely everyone wrong. We then got to watch her success as the public because she went on to win two gold medals, one silver medal at the

Paris Paralympics. And it's been truly incredible to watch your growth and watch what has happened and so inspirational, Lex, to see where you have come from the accident to where you are now is absolutely incredible. So welcome to the podcast today. I'm so excited to talk to you. Hi guys. You're like, wow, where do I start? We start every interview episode with then accidentally unfiltered, which is your most embarrassing story. And I feel like you have a goodie. I mean, I've got so many, but just one that's come to my head, I'll say it. All right. So when I got out of the accident, this is probably like a few years ago, like this is my five-year anniversary soon. But I would say probably three or two years ago, I had like,

I have like support workers because I'm living a so second life that I actually don't remember much of my life before the accident. So anyways, I'm getting a massage and my new support worker I've never met is sitting out in the near the kitchen. She was just going to wait for me when I come out. And you know, in my brain, I just, you know, finished the massage and I texted her like I'm coming out. I walked out butt naked and I gave her the biggest hug ever. I was like, hi. And I gave her the biggest hug. And I don't know, from the day of the accident, and I just love being naked. So there you go.

Did you know you were naked? That was a choice? Or did you forget to put clothes on? I mean, my brain's so damaged. I don't even know. I was just like, brah, I just want to go hug a random chick naked. And she was probably like, cool, this is where we're at. We're close.

We're friends. That is so funny. Also, it really breaks the ice, though. What are you going to do if you're like, well, Lex is cuddling me naked. I guess we're going to be friends. This is where we are. This is going to be great.

Yep. So do you still get around naked now all the time? Do you love it? Oh, I love it. Oh, I just love being naked. I don't know what's happened to my brain, but, like, yes, I get told because I've got to remember to put clothes on. I'm a whole living a second life.

So I do put clothes on. I do know. But, like, you know, sometimes I just feel like we should just live naked. Do you hear in a naked commune? Yeah, I love it. I wonder if it's the case. And, I mean, is it something that you can speak to? Do you feel like you have less inhibitions now?

I'm so fascinated when you say you have, like, these two different lives or, like, you know, you don't necessarily remember that much from your previous life but do you feel like you live a life that kind of doesn't have as many inhibitions around like the things that we are told you shouldn't do I guess yeah I'm so naughty oh my goodness you got like oh there's another little factor I could tell you this so when I got out of the accident oh my brain yes just a whole new different person I would go out touching females boobs that I don't even know them I would go touch their boobs just on the street Yeah, random.

And mom had to tell them. She has severe brain damage. Like she's like, we're sorry. But I was just, I don't know. The brain connections are split. So they're just gone. Do you know why you wanted to touch their boobs? Like the compulsivity.

So in my head, I destroyed like my whole brain very badly. Like I've got a severe traumatic brain injury because they've said it's like one of the worst I've seen, like what I've done to it. But like. Which is crazy. You're sitting here talking to you now. I know. and I couldn't talk like for a while ago I couldn't talk for like six months or anything

so also that must make it so hard when you know that you have like impulse control like as in like you don't have the ability to have impulse control because normally you might think that but then you don't do it it's similar to like I mean I don't want to make a comparison but the only thing I can compare it to in terms of like where my brain goes is like if you have Tourette's where you have this like inability to stop the impulse that you want to say you know that that word is not the word you want to say yeah but then it's like the most obscene thing is what often comes out and the more that you try and stop yourself from doing it the more that your brain wants you to do it yeah do you experience that yeah it's like I can't I can't hold myself like it's like

like I can't stop I just can't like even the things I say like my friends they love me for this all my friends love this about it I literally whatever they're wearing I'll be honest with them and I'll say go change your clothes or online shop like that's how honest I am I've got the honest aspect of my brain damage that's what they said that I hit my head so hard I hit the honesty I'm the most honest person ever do you know this is I find this so fascinating I thought we'd get into it later on but here we are do you know when you're saying something to someone like when you when you know that you have to tell the truth about someone do you know that it might hurt their feelings or that normally that it's not being diplomatic or do you not even have that

cognitive acknowledgement? Yeah, so getting out of the hospital, I went to Charlie Teo, the neurosurgeon. So I actually had to learn strategies and everything like tapping instead of touching boobs, tapping, looking them in the eyes, breathing for anger. Yeah, if you're going to touch their boob, look them in the eye legs. Yeah, at least.

Not the nipple. Anyways, yeah, so I literally just had to like relearn all of that. It was just so hard. As we were saying, this is where my brain memory goes, where we have a conversation and then it flicks out going, what were you talking about? No, so if you say to your friend, like, I don't like your clothes, do you have the recognition that that could hurt their feelings?

Yeah. So you know that it could, but you just can't stop yourself. Yeah, it's like, yeah, I've gotten so much better now. I'm now more aware of not to be offended, like don't be mean or offend someone. I'm now learning. But before, when I got out of the accident, I'd say, I don't give a damn, go change your clothes, online shop, ew.

Like I'd be so honest, like it was up straight, boom. But also, I mean, I would love to kind of understand. I think for anyone who doesn't know your story, it's so important to set up like what happened and what you experienced. But there must have been such an enormous amount of relearning everything that went on in your life. Take us back to what is it that you do remember from before the accident, from your life before 19?

So from the day of the accident, the neuros doctors did say that I won't have memory for four to five years prior and sadly I don't like I met a good friend and I have like a little tattoo right here I don't ever remember getting this like a little love I don't ever remember that I literally I have no memory of four years prior even like the boy my boyfriend Will I didn't know much about him so I completely wiped a lot of things out of my brain from the memory aspect of it that's so fascinating so how long were you with Will for before the accident we were like five or four years and you remember parts of it parts of it like yeah parts we're still in my life we're such a great person but like I just it was so hard that even when I was out of the hospital

like in the hospital I didn't know who my mum was I thought it was my dad's best friend and I know I knew who my dad was I knew that and like in the neuro so in the brain injury rehabilitation where I lived as well in Brisbane they had to all my siblings had these shapes with their faces on it so I'd have to look and because I'm one of seven so there's a lot so I had to look and see and try to formally remember because my brain was so wiped and damaged that it did a lot to me so yeah my memory was really really not great so take us back to what happened what I mean I know you probably don't even necessarily remember that day or the accident but what have you been told about that accident yeah so my parents and my friends they tell me exactly because yeah the brain completely

wiped I don't even know I couldn't even tell you I had an accident but anyways so on the day it was a very exciting morning because the first day I was riding with the A grade bunch so we're going to do a long long distance and everything and it was a top top bunch and you know so pumped apparently dad says and then as I was riding I got to a little spot where I stopped and I messaged my dad apparently saying oh my god I've made it this far up the top of the hill with them and I'm so happy but I took my beanie off and I never tightened my helmet so that's where it all started as in like when you think about it your beanie would be a couple of mils all the way around your head so then without tightening it the helmet was a bit wobbly was it yeah but I don't remember

any of this so that's the bad thing about I don't really remember but anyways as I was saying so like literally I'm going down this apparently I'm going down a hill going 70 kilometers an hour like quick like it's very steep and the pack i'm with i'm with some of the packers some of the pack was like sprinting above apparently i clipped the wheel in front of me oh no and i went smash on the right and then my helmet came off and i went smash on my left without a helmet and then apparently this is why it's the biggest miracle day they say because we're at the back of pomona which at pomona there's no reception at all like none where is that is that like rural queensland yeah it's like near noosa i was at the back of pomona so i it's like country yeah it's like at the back and

there's no reception at all and funny enough there was actually a car coming down the hill so that's weird because there's no one out there and apparently some of the cyclists got in and they they drove like drove out a little bit got reception and they called the ambulance and the ambulance was just around the corner getting a coffee oh wow that's the weirdest thing what are the odds yeah and then even weirder this is why i'm alive i'll tell you right now because there was a cyclist riding up the hill that was a doctor and he put me in a breathing position because my lungs severely collapsed so i couldn't breathe and he put me in a breathing position got me to try breathe and then the ambulance came instantly they took me to the sunshine

coast hospital and that hospital said she's so bad we can't do anything i was in icu they're like we can't because I was really bad and anyways they helicoptered me to Royal Brisbane Hospital but they said I'd never make the flight they said to my parents my parents they cry when they say this story but they said like it was not a doable thing like I was I was wrecked and then all of a sudden I'm in ICU in Royal Brisbane Hospital and yeah I had a severe traumatic brain injury that I'll live with forever but I embrace it that I'm alive and I had blood clots and they never stitched my knee or my hand for a month in ICU because I was I was so damaged they were like she's going to pass away so there's no point I even have a breathing tube in me as well so I didn't breathe

for a while so they had the tubes in for the first week like you were hooked up to a breathing machine yeah they like literally put the tubes in and I they took they for a week and they took it out and I wouldn't breathe so like put it back in they gave me another week the second week they're like all right I've got to take it out they took it out and I didn't breathe so they said to my family you got to come and say goodbye because we're going to turn the tubes off tomorrow and they turned it off how long was this in ICU wow yeah I was there for a while and I breathed and they couldn't believe I actually breathed they thought it was incredible and then yeah I had seven brain operations that my parents actually had to write go in at 2 a.m in the

morning to do a 50 50 chance I'll make it they the brain doctor said I'd never make any of the brain operations i had but relax as you're saying this it's like all i can think is and as a parent i cannot even imagine how your parents coped with what was going on in this period like i can't even imagine thinking that your daughter isn't going to make it and then having like a little bit of hope but then going backtrack and then a little bit of hope i'm sure your dad and your mom have spoken to you about this time like they were absolutely convinced that you weren't going to be able to make it through it or did they hold hope that actually you're going to pull through well weirdly enough i had a quantum healer so my quantum healer reads energies and she

my dad was like we need help because i all the through every brain operation a quantum healer was there trying to help my parents mentally because they were wrecked what was a quantum healer so she reads energies and funny enough to tell you this but when i was in icu she read that I wanted to go to the Paralympics and bring home three medals and you did what okay now I need to like she's an incredible person no matter where you are stop what you're doing and google search what a quantum healer is I need to understand this the quantum healer was that something that you guys as a family were into like holistic healing and holistic health or was that something that your parents thought well throw anything at me I will do I will do anything right

now to to try and help my daughter apparently a week before the accident my mom and dad wanted we wanted to go see this quantum healer because i was a bit down on life i was 19 i was just a bit down and they wanted me to go to a quantum healer but the day of the accident i was meant to see her but i couldn't because i had the accident right so that's where my parents were like well we've got to grab this quantum here to read the energies to tell us that my daughter's gonna live you are the luckiest unlucky person like for how unlucky you were to have had the accident yeah but then the world's aligned in every other way to get you through that like the the car the ambulance i know the doctor that happened to be going up the hill it's incredible it really is it really is sometimes

you hear about things that happen in life and you're like there is a reason that you were meant to be here yeah like there's a reason why you're meant to have survived that because no one should of survived that yeah and even in the hospital my mom and dad tell me that the neuro doctors the brain like all the doctors in there said no one ever survives a cycling accident they said never like this is the biggest miracle they've ever had like even at the hospital i've got a big plaque on their wall because they can't believe i lived they're just shocked and not just lived i think like some people do live but the brain damage that happens to them is so systemic that they're unable to live with the quality of life that you are living like you are living life still which is

what is the most remarkable thing wow and then so okay so they took the tube out and you started breathing again yeah what did the journey look like from there like what state were you in in terms of walking talking living and then the rehabilitation journey yes so that was big that was so I literally got out of ICU and obviously I had a oh I was it was terrible because I constantly had to keep going back in for brain operations to put a shunt in my head fake bone in my head and everything and rehab has oh I'll be in rehab for the rest of my life I won't lie forever and anyways so yeah I had to learn how to walk in the hospital we tried I couldn't really for a while and the brain neuro doctors did say that I I will forever be a vegetable or I will never walk or

talk again and that's where I proved the world wrong going well no hold up I'm going to live my best and I'm going to push through it. And I did. And so then I went to, so I spent most of every single day was in the hospital, brain operations, all that going through that. And then every Monday I'd get tested on my name, my address, who my parents were. And I failed for like six months. I failed it for a while. And that was the whole reason to get me into the brain rehabilitation unit in Brisbane. Because when you've got a very damaged brain, you have to go to a brain rehab place to restart your life again because it was my second life so the day I actually got it right I actually got it wrong apparently but yeah I got in and they put me in the ambulance

and took me to the brain home and that's where my whole life had to happen where I had to get learn how to cook again I had to learn how to walk talk even shampoo and conditioner the lady I used to sit on the chair because I couldn't walk she used to say this is shampoo Lex and I'd go I just didn't know. Like everything restarted. I restarted everything. Tell me a little bit about, you would have one experience of this, which would be different to your family and friends and your boyfriend, because you don't know that he was your boyfriend, right? Like you're living this experience. You're like, I don't remember you. I don't remember all of the things that we shared. His experience is, I do remember everything we shared. You were my partner.

You are the person I've spent five years with. Have you spoken to him about how he dealt with that period of guess of realizing that you were never going to remember the relationship the two of you have had together in a way yeah like I will will still calls me whenever we still checking with each other texts and every like that but it just completely wiped my brain it's like my brain is like 50 first dates yeah I was just thinking that I have nicknames for people because I damaged the short term and long term it's i did a bit of a bang on my head but anyways yeah so it's like will has to explain we have to look at photos it was so hard to know that i dated him yeah but little bits i remember but not too much what does it feel like maybe you can't even find the

words for it but what does it feel like to sit down and it must be like an out-of-body experience to sit down with someone that you know you loved and you know you had these memories with and whether that's your mom or Will or whoever, to sit there and have them be like, we got matching tattoos because we were so in love and so friendly and you just have no comprehension of anything. Like, do you tell yourself, okay, it's obvious I was close to that person, so I need to maybe formulate those relationships again. Like, is it something that you can fake to try and reconnect because you know the feeling

was there or is it really starting again and you just have to treat them like a stranger? Because I guess in a way it's almost like I have the information, I know how close we were, do I jump ahead to formulate that again or do you go back to just being strangers? I don't know. My brain's just so different. It's like my best friend, I met her a year before the accident, that's the one I got the tattoos with, I don't remember my time with her.

Like we talk sometimes now but I don't remember. It's hard to say and try to get a connection. You're different. I'm so different. my brain is like fully changed so it's like I can't say I don't I don't know but also I think that connection is probably different for her as well you're a different version of yourself too so she probably had to go through a morning of like losing a friend in a certain way like you're physically here but the version of you that was her best friend isn't here and the version of you

that was Will's girlfriend isn't here it's a completely new person and everyone is kind of relearning at the same time yeah so different you said that you didn't remember your mom but you remembered your dad yeah why do you think that is and were there any other siblings because you got so many siblings like were there any specific siblings that you remembered things more so than others so my dad is like my best friend he is the real reason and my mom too is why I'm here and why I'm living my best life they fought so hard for me like living next door in a hotel for six months dad stopped working just to fight for me to live so it was like incredible but yeah I just I don't know it was like really really hard like as with the question you were saying

this is what happens with my brain so you can tell me something and then I'll forget what you said and I just yeah I guess maybe maybe you were closer to your dad in a way or had a different connection with your dad yeah so me and my dad are like yeah best friends I don't actually know but I knew who my dad was yeah not many other people know and he was the main person out of your whole life that you recognize yeah I just recognized my dad wow and then after I got out of the hospital when I went to rehab that's when I could get familiar with my siblings and my mom and I knew who they were and then I knew who Sammy Will was and yeah I could understand that then so it'd take a long time for my brain to try try to. Zex when the doctors are telling you that you're

not going to walk again or you're not going to do certain things how did you feel about that because you've proven so many things wrong did you have this version of life I guess where you were like, that's not, I'm going to do these things. Or was it something that came as a surprise to you as well? I'm a very determined person. I will fight to live my best life and I will fight to keep moving. So I'm a full fighter. So I know that when they said that I wouldn't walk or talk again, oh no, no, I'm going to prove the world wrong and I'm going to do it. Like that's how my mentality is every day. It's like every day I have goals in my head and I want to, and I want to complete it and I want to get it done and feel good within myself.

Have you always been like that? Do you think in terms of what people have said about the old Lex, did you always have that sort of resilience in you? I think it's gone even higher now because my emotions are so heightened. So I think I'm even more determined and passionate within life. It's crazy. Amazing. When you say your emotions are more heightened, talk to us a little bit about that. Like what have you been told is the biggest difference between your first life and your second life? yeah so when I damaged my brain very badly all my connections split so they're actually trying

to fight to reconnect with each other but they never will so it actually caused because I smacked my head so hard all my emotions that's why I've got a behavior coach and I've got like support workers and I OT because I'm living a full second life so I have to learn with my behavior it's oh it's insane like oh it's i don't even know how to explain it to you i just go so sad angry happy in a second in a in a moment i try to calm myself but it's just just keeps going so all your feelings and emotions are really heightened yes and do you feel like they are have you been told that they're not necessarily in line with what is happening like maybe you get so much more angry over something that shouldn't make you that angry yeah that's what happens right it's like the

tiniest little problem but it's not even a problem and it's like my brain is so heightened I scream and yell this is a really interesting side effect that happens as well to people who sustain any level of brain injury growing up my sister was in a really terrible car accident she had a severe concussion which meant that she wiped weeks of her life she couldn't remember her boyfriend and she ended up having to go through an anger management course because the after effects once all of the recovery had sort of, I guess she outwardly had recovered. Her emotions were all over the place and it's kind of the unseen side effects of brain injury. Obviously people see this version of you. You're so competent. You're so capable. You're this bubbly, vibrant, amazing

woman winning gold medals at the Olympics. What is it that people don't see about how you live with a brain injury? It's so hidden. So people go, she fell off a bike. Oh, she's all good. It's like oh no no I am fully I wake up every morning sometimes I wake up I don't know where I am I don't know what I'm doing I have to check in and then my emotions are going insane and it's like what do I do like Lex like it is yeah it is so annoying like it does annoy me but I'm lucky that I'm living from the accident I had so it's like oh it just drives me insane like I can sometimes upset my friends but I don't mean it in that way I don't mean to do that it's just the emotion I have is just insane so sometimes you'll wake up now still and you for a little while don't know

where you are or do you know who you are do you remember what's happening in your life do you like what is it like in that moment that you wake up and you're not sure where you are so it's like more when I travel places so like when I'm at home the goal is I'm okay I know what I'm doing and I always set little goals for the next day so when I wake up I can look at it and I know that I said that so then the next day I know I can complete that so yeah so I wake up so like here for an instance i wake up and sometimes i just wig out where i am but m comes in like a support worker but she's a friend comes in to just go lex we're all good we're here but this morning i was pretty good because i just call my mom and i go yeah what we're doing and just have to refresh my brain to

know do you have safety nets in place for you like i mean apart from just leaving yourself notes like what do you do if you are overseas and you don't know where you are or like you get lost in the spiral of confusion i guess what are the safety nets that you have in place for yourself now so like calling like there's always a call and then always I'm always with someone that I know will tell me what I'm doing and what's happening so that's the best thing I've always got someone with me I can't go traveling on my own yeah but yeah so that's why it always makes me know where I am can you get about your normal day today and you know in Queensland on your own or do you normally have someone with you that helps with I guess like guiding through the not decisions of

life but like a normal day yeah like the like the time of life you know so that you're not disorientated or confused yeah I do have someone with me every day I can have like I do have someone just to like help me understand what I'm doing like I know I've got swim training I know I've got this I've got appointments but it's sometimes my brain will go what am I doing I don't know where to go yeah and it like fully wipes like my brain can wipe and I'm like oh it's it's frustrating trust me I can imagine and I think it could probably be even more frustrating because that feels like it's the stuff that people can't see. Like people assume that maybe you're more competent with your,

I guess like where your brain is at simply because you outwardly look so. Yeah, I look fine. It's so invisible. Yeah, it is. It's very. Like people just don't ever, like I always, all I ever think is people just think I fell off a bike. They don't see what's actually the real truth.

Like my book is the real truth. Yeah, you remind me a lot in a way of M. Kerry the girl who fell from the sky so she's a friend of ours we've had her on the podcast a few times but she's spoken about the same thing from the outset and when I say you remind me of her she also walks in and glows in the room like that girl glows but she is so well put together she's so competent she's out there traveling the world and doing the hikes and her disability is really invisible and it's that every day trying to manage outward perceptions of what people think about you And have you got a lot of or do you get a lot of pushback when you look

and act the way you do, which is by all accounts very normal, and then you are in the Paralympics and you're competing against other people with disabilities? Have you had any negative responses from people? Yeah, like I would say when I got classed with my classification, a lot of people would go, but she's basically normal. Like what? It's like you don't understand a traumatic brain injury or severe,

like you don't know what I did to my, Like, cool, I fell off a bike. It's all good. It's like, oh, no, no. Like what I did to cause my physical damage, that's why I'm physical damage in para, is people just don't see that. They go, well, she looks normal. It must be very frustrating to have to defend the class

of which you've been put in when it comes to something like the Paralympics. Yeah, it is. How do you deal with that? I'm okay. I'm fine. I forget half the things that people say. So I go, whatever, I'll move on.

Yeah, come at me however you want. And I won't remember it. Come at me, whatever. That's how I see it. Tell us about how you got back into swimming and how you got into, I mean, did you come out of the surgeries and the rehabilitation with a goal of making it to the Paralympics or was it something that grew as your competence grew?

So the neuro doctors, they said to my mum and dad when I got out of the hospital and Beru, the brain home, they said that we want Lex to get in the water to try move her right side again to give rehab for my right side but in my brain like as the quantum healer said before I didn't even know any of this I said to my parents I was swimming I was swimming quite good but I just can't do backstroke butterfly breaststroke but that's okay I'm just a freestyler you only need one stroke exactly that's all I think about so anyways yeah I was just so determined I was like I said to my parents one time I was like I want to go to the Paralympics

I just want to do it so it all started from there from the push I gave myself because I want to I want to be proud of myself I want to I want to feel good and you know I've always since the accident I've been so mean to myself hating myself more than anything not accepting myself not understanding my brain damage so I was just hurting myself more and more but I needed something to accomplish to feel good yeah that was my biggest goal it also sounds I mean I know that you talk about the two separate lives but it also sounds like that is the old Lex like that sounds like that is who you were. You were competitive. You were a sportsman. You were someone who was always pushing yourself. And then here is that person showing up again, post brain injury to

push you into becoming a Paralympian. It's incredible that you still have that drive and that resilience. Yeah. Since I was a little kid, like even being like my ADHD is insane, but we love that. Were you ADHD before? Yeah. I was diagnosed at five. right okay I'm a Ritalin now I'm a Dexys give it all to me I'm so hyped um anyways yeah so since a little kid mom dad said sport is just my big love I've just loved sports since I was little so my mom and dad are cyclists and I used to fight to be on the back of their bunch when I was like 10 or 11 I was like fighting so they did occasionally they're like you can jump in the bunch but I was like I want more than that I want

to you know I want three sports because triathlon you would do everything so then I was like yeah triathlon it is so that's where it happened I just sport has been a massive thing in my life yeah it's amazing you speak really positively about your accident and your recovery journey and how driven you were and optimistic and you always knew you weren't going to give up but were there low times in that time the times where you're like fuck this is just too hard like did you ever want to give up did you ever think that it wasn't going to happen and I know it's all about you know being positive and putting the energy out there but I imagine there'd be some really low times in that time yeah there were there I was like because the biggest thing was

I was hating myself when I got out of the accident the more you hate yourself the more your life is just not worth worth living that's how I thought what did you hate that life had changed yeah like I got taken so all my head was shaved except for this little chunk down here this little tiny chunk yeah you you kept your rat's tail yeah I did okay we went to the yeah I did I loved it I felt like hot air um I would so with my brain damage I would forget I would eat like people would ask me out I'd eat like a palmy but then I would finish it and then I'd go oh they would go how did you like that I go I haven't eaten and I'd order another one so I just kept eating that was compulsive so that got angry at me that was putting on weight so I was getting really upset with myself and then

all of a sudden I lost my like driving license not lost it they the neuro doctors didn't ever want me to drive but don't worry I fought to drive I was like come on like I really want to so they're like you can't walk or speak you cannot drive yeah that's it that's what I've been told I'm like great now I've still tested it once a year for it as well so it's really hard it's your sense of freedom and identity when you lose those things I think they're the small things that it kind of makes sense as to why you're not allowed to have them at the time but it's a real I guess cornerstone of like your life has changed now and this is something that you know and you're 19 years old having a license how important that is like of course that is a huge loss

but it must also be a vicious cycle for you because I mean the food thing's fascinating because not only did you not remember but I'm assuming you didn't feel full either like you ate a parmigiana and then wanted another one yeah but then you can't stop eating because you don't know yeah but then you're putting on weight which makes you unhappy yeah and then you just keep going around how do you break that cycle like not just the food cycle but that the unhappiness that you felt and the hating yourself what made you switch to you know what I need to start looking forward and looking up yeah I just have that little push in my mindset I've just got to push it I just like determined like to you know be the best person I can be for myself and that's the

biggest fight I have like every day so I knew that I got to a point that my mom would say to the people right just make sure you only order one like just mom had to tell them if they asked me Yeah, I've had to tell them. You mean like on dates and stuff or you mean with friends? Oh, no, I was still dating after I got out of the hospital in Noosa. I lived in Noosa for a year but I wanted to go to the other little place to do rehab swimming so I'd swim a little bit and, yes, friends would ask me out and things like that but then the crunch got me

when I wanted to really push this swimming and I wanted to stop eating junk and I don't know what happened. switching my brain went Lex you've got to live a great second life come on so that's what happened that's why I moved to the Gold Coast yeah it's truly inspirational how long did it take you to walk again oh it took I would say about I think it was five or six months in the hospital and in the brain home because in a wheelchair for a long time it's my right side didn't want to work and this right hand never worked they'd like lift it up and it just wouldn't work at all it was from the brain connections how much I did damage to it it just didn't want to work I would love to talk

to you about your experience at the Paralympics and like what it's like to go from having this goal I mean and knowing how much work you had to put in to be able to be there and to stand on a podium and to win gold medals and to dance and to dance what did that feel like what was even before even knowing that you'd placed but like being able to I guess like qualify for the Olympics go to the Paralympics what was that period of life like for you oh honestly it was what I need it's what I needed just wanted to be happy within myself to know that I've done something amazing and so like I you know I'd fight so hard every day at training I'd just push the limits going Lex come on you want it you want to go you want to go and when I got there and when I won it it

was probably the best moment of my life ever because I looked to the side my whole family is there my coach is there it just it made me so proud to how far I've come from being told on the hospital bed I'm not gonna live to where I got and I don't know I felt so free I was like oh I've done it I've done it I'm just I don't know I loved it was the best moment ever and then of course there was a race about to happen but I had to Kylie Minogue she got me going I was like I'm sorry but the race was about to happen but I was like you're making me cry I just had to have a special moment i didn't care about the medal i just cared of the fact that you did i wouldn't have got here without the people my family and you know my coach i wouldn't

i wouldn't be here so it was just the best moment of my life you've just made me want to i'm like what am i doing with my life i need to go to the olympics i'm like i'm doing nothing with my life what do you see next are you going to go and try and go to another paralympics yeah in la la soon the 100 and the 53 yep so can you ride a bike and things like that still or you the neuro doctors don't want me to because my balance like all my balance is gone and things like that I have physio every week so once a week I'm in physio trying to work my right side again so it's like really really hard yeah do you think that you would want to get back on a bike or do you think that would I do I want to I just want to one day maybe in a it takes a it would

take a long time for my brain to heal not like it will ever completely heal but it will it'll heal just a little bit better that I feel like when I can do a triathlon maybe in five years time I would just love that just the triathlon I'm fascinated by this so your brain is still healing currently you don't reach like a place of destination and be like that's all the recovery you're going to have like it's forever repairing itself so do you find even in yourself that each year things are getting a little bit clearer or a little bit better or a little bit easier Yeah, like I no more touch boobies. No, no, no.

No, hair's enough. And she has clothes on today. And I do have clothes on. Yeah, no tits out for the boys. That's great. It's saying that though. Shame. It's saying that when it comes to your classification at the Paralympics,

can that then change depending on where you arrive at with your own healing journey? Yeah, it really depends. I don't even know. It's just like, well, my physical damage will never heal. It will forever be the same as it is. And that's okay. I embrace it I'm fine with it but your cognition will change yeah like my brain it's slowly to get

better like and strategies like the behavior coach the support workers it's just like I've got it and my mom and dad they're a big push for for like support and stuff like that so it's just going to get me better and better like learning little things of how I talk to people so when I go out the hospital I have to learn how to have a conversation with someone interact yeah so I had to learn that talk to us a little bit about your love life like dating do you date are you looking for somebody what has changed in that capacity no i just want to live i just it's just a life of just being me just for peace just peace just to just to live my life just work on myself yeah that's the biggest thing i have like see some boys they're here and they're here and they're

sometimes i forget to put my clothes on yeah or take them off yeah so for now for now it's like let's just put everything into lex like let's just get you tick off your goals get yourself great and then focus on my little myself yeah yeah i also feel like you've got a pretty full plate when you like think about all of the work that you're doing on yourself but also the fact that you're training for paralympics like that doesn't really leave a lot of room in life for dating yeah but it gives you such a good excuse for like if you don't want to do something or you forgot to do something with your partner you're like babe i can't remember i forgot do you ask me to do that i forgot like you know you've got an inbuilt excuse there it's great

lex you've just published your memoir which is sink or swim i can only imagine this had to be like an enormous team effort since there's so much of the story that you don't have the ability to remember who did you write this with was it with your parents was it like how did this come about uh yeah it's incredible so through penguins so i got five offers after the paralympics there was five people and we with my agency they're like we want penguins like this is awesome and And it was Ali is the lady who wrote my, who wrote my The Ghost Rider. Yeah. But it's been incredible.

Like, I'm sorry, but like, it's taken so long, but I'm like, it's the truth. It's also amazing in terms of like how much it recaps through photography and through like the actual, I guess, like showing images of what happened and like where you were at with your family. But was this also a kind of a labor of love from your parents as well, giving their importance to what happened from their perspective during that time? It is. It is.

they say the truth and I love that because we need the truth like I know there's some things in my book I didn't want to share I don't want to share it all you were saying to us a bit earlier that you you've written some things that are really personal and believe it or not more traumatic than even the injury themselves and something that you you said to us you don't really like to talk about but you felt it was easier for you to write down yeah it was I just felt like writing it down and people can read it I don't want to speak it but I guess it's in the book to help young girls but yeah there's another little thing when I was so down on myself that I just didn't want to be here anymore so I tried to leave life but I know that I had to have that mindset to try

keep going I try I push my limits to do that but yeah also I understand why that's something that you might not want to share but I think it's incredibly powerful for anybody else who finds themselves in that place that they don't see yeah what what they have or why they're here to look at and to see that you went from that and to where you are now is incredible what do you want to say to anyone now that might be listening that's going through like a hard time and might be feeling really low the biggest thing I think is you got to love yourself first and accept who you are that's something that I've got to work on every day from the from the accident I know I couldn't even stand myself when I got out but now I'm like Lex look in that mirror and

look who you are and love who you are. You said earlier that when you were fighting to get back on your feet and relive your life, you just wanted to be proud of yourself. Are you proud of yourself? Yeah, I am. I can say I am, but you know, it's taken me a while to be proud, but I'm like, Lex, look how far you've come. You're living your best life and you're actually alive. You're incredible. Thanks. Yeah. I don't know. Another big thing I'd like to say is I would love people to understand and research about a traumatic brain injury because it's a very unseen thing. So people actually are born with brain injuries, but I had mine appear a traumatic brain injury on just a random day of cycling. So it's like, I'd love for people to

learn more about traumatic brain injuries. What is it about it specifically that you would like people to know? Just to be accepted, like just to accept and understand of the brain connections of what I did to myself and a lot of other people with a TBI as well. So yeah, I would just love people to look at it and just know more about it. Really. That's something I'd like. What's next for you? What are you working on at the moment besides the next Paralympics? My next song comes out quite soon. Does it? Yes. And where are we going to get that? Everywhere? Spotify? Spotify. Spotify. Mate, you're doing everything. I know. Watch this space. Watch this space yeah no it's gonna be good I think I think I like this one better than my first one I

did so I think we're good on that one okay yeah so yeah amazing I'm liking it well when we have the notes that will update it in the show look I mean sink or swim you can get it from any great places where you can get books from probably anywhere that sells books to be honest but Lex you are you are such an inspiration and I think like your resilience and what we saw shine through the screens during the Paralympics you were that and more in person like it is such a joy to be to sit down and chat with you but your story is something that like it deserves to be written down because it's truly remarkable thanks thanks so much for having me no you're killing it thanks thanks for coming today thanks