Elena Krawzow dives. There is half a beat of silence. A moment of rest. Then she cut the surface with her hands. There is a rush of water. She starts to count.
Krawzow says he knows nothing about what is happening around him.
I have a disability, but also my focus.
I count the strokes to orient myself. I know when the wall and the turn will be when I do one more stroke.
I can't tell you what's happening in lane three, five or wherever. I only worry about myself, my technique and my race.
Only 3% of Krawzow's vision remains visually impaired. She can not see her rivals.
She can not see the photographer. She can hear the click of the shutter.
Krawzow is on a boardwalk. The sea is calm and flat. The sun is shining. She is wearing only a pair of white bikini bottoms and running her hands through her hair.
It is a long way from the pool. It is even further from the beginning.
Krawzow was born in a small village. It was 1993. Her country had been independent for two years. There were scars from the separation of the Soviet Union.
The farms were short of customers and seeds. Money was tight and work for Krawzow's family was hard to find. She and her siblings used to get by on tea and bread.
Things became harder when Krawzow was seven. Her teachers noticed that she squinted to see the board. She held books close to her nose as she read.
The family wanted to leave more quickly. They needed a place to teach and treat their daughter.
They went to Russia and the Moscow eye hospital to get the diagnosis. Krawzow was sent to a boarding school where violence between kids and teachers was common.
The Krawzows were able to re-settle in Germany with Elena now 11.
She remembers that it was not easy to change countries.
I came from a small village and the European lifestyle, and Germany was completely new to me. I felt like an alien.
It was the best choice from my parents. I am very happy to live in Germany, because a lot of people there helped me to realize myself.
One of the people was a sports teacher. He saw that swimming could be an outlet for Krawzow, a fish out of water.
She trained herself by counting strokes and lengths. She was dancing to the beats of Berlin's techno clubs at the weekends.
She went to the London 2012 Paralympics as a teenager and won a silver medal. She won her first world title a year later. She set a world record in the 100m breaststroke.
The opportunity to break further ground was brought about by success.
She says that it was important that Playboy made that request to do the shoot because she was a world champion and had world records.
I am the first disabled person to be on the cover. It was a way to show other guys that people with a disability are the same as people without a disability.
Before Krawzow shoots in the autumn of 2020, other Paralympians have done the same.
Jonnie Peacock posed shirtless for a magazine. Sarah Reinertsen was nude in the Body Issue of 2009.
The German Playboy cover, unapologetically erotic, caused a greater stir.
Some Paralympians have long criticised their casting as stars of 'inspiration porn' - media coverage that lingers on disability as a defining feature to be overcome with dignity and determination. They see their sporting achievements reduced to two-dimensional feel-good fodder for an able-bodied eye.
In October 2020, Krawzow's shoot hit the newsstands, raising eyebrows and also questions. How do we see Paralympians? Is it okay for us to see this much of one? An athlete in a wheelchair? Or with cerebral palsy?
Krawzow wanted to show that people with a disability are the same as people without a disability.
Some people in Germany are very shy around people with a disability. I don't know why. We are not dangerous. We are normal people. To show that we are normal and they can talk to us like normal people was my challenge.
A lot of women and other people wrote to me on social media to say thank you and to say it made them feel better, it was nice to hear it.
Not everyone was a fan. The cultural and generational gap was too wide for Krawzow's parents.
Her father did not talk about it. He expressed concern over the lack of warmth and support in her outfits in relation to other, more modest bikini-clad photos featured on her social media.
He was on a more comfortable ground. Less than a year after the Playboy shoot, Krawzow was back in the pool and looking for medals.
Krawzow noticed something wasn't right halfway through the 100m breaststroke Paralympic final.
She remembers that after the 50m turn, she thought maybe someone had turned before her.
Britain's Rebecca Redfern is the Rebecca in question. She was more than a second ahead. Krawzow felt her dream of Paralympics gold slipping away. Again.
Krawzow had arrived at Rio 2016 as a red-hot favourite, but faded to fifth after five years. She was determined not to be denied again.
One of the last to know was the German.
She says she had to ask a volunteer at the pool what her time was.
I realized I was the winner after that. I was very emotional about it. I was the happiest girl in the world because of the work and sacrifice that went into getting this medal.
After the Paralympics, Krawzow traveled and got engaged to her boyfriend. Her headaches were bad, but life was good.
She put them down to jet-leg, a new environment, and the build-up of a decade of Paralympics pressure. They were hard to explain as they traveled to Paris.
After shopping for wedding rings, she went for an exam. The images showed a brain cancer.
I had been so happy and then in the next second of the diagnosis, I felt completely destroyed.
All my good feeling was gone.
After an operation, she will have treatment for another 10 months. The latest update from her doctor interrupted our interview.
Krawzow is still training, still competing, still unswerving in her approach to sport and life. The World Championships will be held in Portugal in June. The city of Paris is around the corner.
One of the first questions she asked after her brain operation was how soon she could train again.
I think this is one of the most important things in life, to have goals, rather than staying at home and thinking about all the horrible things.
Krawzow is challenging our old assumptions.
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