Lani Pallister's mother broke down in tears of joy after her daughter overcame a heart condition and an eating disorder to win gold at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne on Tuesday night. The 20-year-old from the Sunshine Coast claimed victory in the women's 400m freestyle at the short-course meet, marking her rise to the elite ranks after two difficult years.
In 2021, Pallister developed a serious heart condition requiring surgery and a crippling obsession with body image. Things became so severe that she admitted to having 'given up' on the sport by the end of last year. Her mother, former Olympic swimmer and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Janelle Pallister, became emotional when asked if her daughter had considered quitting.
'I actually asked her to sort of just have a good think about it because it wasn't really worth the pain that she was going through,' Janelle told Nine. 'She was determined to come back and she's come back with a vengeance. All we said to her was, "Lani, just be you. Just get out there and be you."'
Pallister, who narrowly missed qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, made her move approaching the 300m mark, overtaking New Zealand's Erika Fairweather and accelerating to the finish. 'I don't normally use my legs, so it was kind of an odd feeling having them still there by the end of the race,' she said afterwards. 'I texted my mum and said, "Watch for them on the last lap", because it's an unusual occurrence.'
Pallister becomes the third Australian to win this event, following Kylie Palmer in 2008 and Ariarne Titmus in 2018.
