GOLD medal hopeful Stephanie Millward is keeping her eyes on the prize despite the goalposts shifting dramatically just months before the start of this summer’s Paralympic Games in Rio.

In September, the 34-year-old, from Corsham (right), will be in Brazil to compete at her third Paralympics, looking to add to the four silvers and bronze she won at London 2012, but she will be doing so in a category for more severely physically impaired swimmers.

Millward, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis days before her 18th birthday in 2000, went through a reclassification process at this month’s Berlin Open and has been moved down from the S9 category to S8, which accounts for athletes with coordination problems in the lower limbs and some amputations.

It means she will be pitted against unfamiliar opposition in Rio but Millward, who is based in Manchester ahead of the Games, is looking on the bright side.

“I’d noticed that my coordination and some of my strokes had got worse over the last year and it’s a shame because it means that my illness has got worse too but you’ve got to be positive,” she said.

“When I found out my classification had changed, I didn’t really know how to react.

“I had two classifiers who tested me. They tested my reflexes and reactions on land, and I also had to do some sprint work. I then had to swim the breaststroke and another stroke.

“It’s really strange because I now don’t know anything about anyone else I’m going to be swimming against and I’m thinking ‘how am I going to do?’ but I’ve just got to concentrate on how I’m swimming.

“We’re still talking to coaches about what swims we’ll be doing in Rio. I think that I’ll be doing the 400m free, 100 free and 100 backstroke but there’s also the 200m medley on the last day, so it would be a waste not to do that.

“I could now maybe go for the 50m free, so there’s lots of options to try and get that gold medal.”

Millward will continue her Paralympic preparations at next week’s National Open Championships and is also receiving help when it comes to getting around in Brazil.

She added: “I’ve just found out that a company will be helping me out with a free electric wheelchair.

“I’m usually really disabled after swimming and need two people to help get me into a manual wheelchair. There’s also going to be a lot of travelling that we need to do in Rio, so it’s going to help with that too.”