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“My goodness, it would be incredible to win a gold medal,” she told the BBC on Tuesday after finishing second in the 1500m. She didn’t have to wait long to experience that feeling.

The enthusiasm with which she rang the victory bell at the Stade de France gave an idea of ​​how exciting and emotional it was for her to add to her medal collection.

“I cried the whole victory lap, just cried the whole time,” she said.

“In Tokyo I won my first Paralympic medal but with no spectators in the stands. That was pretty heartbreaking for me. 29 people were out there with posters of my face. To do that in front of all of them is so incredibly special because even though it’s an individual sport, I have a huge team around me.”

Kinghorn was 14 when she broke her back in an accident on her family farm in 2010 when snow and ice fell from a roof and crushed her.

She spent six months in Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital before being told she would never walk again.

“After my accident, my body was completely destroyed. I rebuilt it through training and that helped me accept the new me,” she said.

“My physiotherapist in the spine department in Glasgow, without her I wouldn’t be here now. She saw something in me. I loved sport even before my accident and she got me trying lots of different sports.

“I wanted to try wheelchair racing and Ian Thompson, Tanni-Grey Thompson’s husband, said to me, ‘Oh, you could be good at this.’ That was an instant game-changer. I had just had something pretty traumatic happen to me and I didn’t know if I would ever be good at anything again. I remember thinking, ‘OK, great, I’ll do that.'”

Kinghorn’s first Paralympic gold follows three world titles, the most recent in the 100m in Paris last year, when she also defeated Debrunner.

There could be more medals for both of them in Paris. After the 400 m on Thursday, Kinghorn will be competing in the 4×100 m universal relay on Friday, while Debrunner will, incredibly, compete in the marathon on Sunday.