Royals

Harry meets our Paralympic Princess Maddison

Harry meets our Paralympic Princess Maddison

Prince Harry and Maddison Elliot.

Prince Harry is a busy man with an even busier schedule but that didn’t stop him from taking some time out to chat with our youngest Paralympic hero Maddison Elliot.

The 13-year-old swimmer — who has won a gold, silver and bronze medal so far this Games — was watching heats at the London aquatic centre when she spotted Harry nearby.

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Brimming with excitement, the tiny champion walking over and introduced herself, telling the third in line to the throne who she was, and how many medals she had won.

“I just said to him that I’m 13 and that this is my first Paralympic Games and that I’ve won three medals, a gold, a silver and a bronze,” Maddison said.

While Maddison is justifiably thrilled with her achievements, Harry feigned horror, teasing her for taking medals from Great Britain.

“He was saying ‘You’re stealing all the gold medals off the British team’ and I said ‘I’m sorry’,” Maddison said.

But when asked if her apology was genuine, she said: “No!”

After their chat, Maddison presented Harry with her Aussie team mascot — a tiny plush frill-necked lizard called Lizzie.

“I had a mascot with me so I gave him that,” she said. “He thought I was just showing him, but I said ‘No, you can keep it’ … he was pretty happy.”

Maddison, from Gillieston Heights in NSW, has cerebral palsy. She won gold as part of Australia’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, silver in the 50m freestyle and bronze in the 400m freestyle.

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She’s still got up to three events left, so could add even more medals to her already impressive haul.

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