Rowan Crothers, a former Valorant pro, has won gold at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
In a remarkable change from his former Valorant life, Australian swimmer, Crothers, competed in the Paralympics Men’s 50m freestyle S10 class and won gold with a time of 23.21, just 0.05 seconds slower than the current world record.
Crothers has Cerebral Palsy which affects movement capabilities and motor functions. According to an interview with a Guardian Australia reporter, the swimmer and former Valorant pro only began swimming as a way to help him with his condition and that “he hated it at first”.
Outstanding interview from Rowan Crothers. Says his parents got him into swimming to help him with his cerebral palsy. He hated it at first. Now he’s an elite athlete, he says. Yep, and a Gold medallist. #Paralympics
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) August 25, 2021
In the interview, he offered advice to any young kids watching that they should “get in the pool” and to “find something you love and chase it”.
Away from the pool, Crothers performed well in the Valorant Pro Oceanic region under the name, magnetbrain, but quit gaming entirely to focus on this year’s Paralympics. Previously, he was on the team Pants Down, a group of OCE Valorant players that qualified for the LetsPlay.Live (LPL) Challengers tournament in September 2020. Since then, Crothers has focused entirely on his swimming.
It’s not known yet if the multi-talented swimmer and gamer plans on returning to the eSport or will continue to focus his efforts on para-swimming events.
Either way, he has taken home one of the most prestigious awards in sports.
In other gaming news that warms the heart, Niantic has made the Pokémon GO interaction radius 80m permanently which will help many vulnerable players, and a trailer for DokeV is adorable and bizarre.
Elsewhere, Fortnite is celebrating civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr. with a brand-new game mode titled March Through Time – a museum-like experience which immerses players in key moments of history.
The post Former Valorant Pro wins gold at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games appeared first on NME.
