Australian Paralympic swimmer Ahmed Kelly earned his hard-as-nails reputation playing Aussie rules, but hed done plenty to justify it before he even took to the field.The 25-year-old grew up in a war zone, abandoned at an Iraqi orphanage with severely deformed limbs.I was born with no arms and no legs. Its thought to be due to exposure to chemical weapons, he told AAP.His life changed at age seven when he was adopted by humanitarian Moira Kelly and brought to Australia to receive treatment.He is now a genuine contender for a gold medal in swimming at the Rio Paralympic Games, being held from September 7-18.I want to get a personal best time. Hopefully thats good enough for me to get on the podium, and a gold medal would be an amazing bonus, he said.Kelly got the nickname Nails for his tough playing style with his local AFL team as a teenager in Victoria.I got `Nails for attacking the footy without any fear, I played with a lot of passion and desperation, he said.When Kelly took to the pool and later debuted at the 2012 London Paralympics, that moniker became Liquid Nails.The Melbourne-based athlete came agonisingly close to a podium finish in London, with a fourth in the 50-metre breaststroke.Hes hoping to close that gap in Rio, and drastically improved his time at the April selection trials in Adelaide.Compared to what I swam in London, it was about a second and a half improvement, he said.And hes ramped up his training schedule to 11 sessions a week in the hopes of bringing home gold.Kelly is also studying for a journalism degree part-time, and says hell always be thankful to his mum Moira for giving him and his brother Emmanuel a new life.Upon arriving in Australia, Kelly underwent surgery to remove the deformed sections of his lower legs and had to learn to walk all over again with prostheses.The operation came and it was quite scary at first, but I just couldnt wait to walk like everybody else, he said.There I was getting ready to wear prosthetic legs and when I put them on, it just felt like magic.Kelly says two of his biggest fans are his adopted little sisters, Trishna and Krishna.The Bangladeshi conjoined twins made worldwide headlines in 2009 when they underwent a 32-hour operation to separate them.They wont be making the long journey (to Rio), theyre not quite ready for that just yet, Kelly said.No matter how tired they are, they better wake up and watch the race. Or at least record it!The girls are now nine, and Kelly wants to show them that anything is possible.I hope I can be the person to give them good advice to tackle some of lifes tough challenges, he said.AUSTRALIAS RIO PARALYMPIC TEAM* 169 athletes competing across 15 sports* Aiming for a top-five finish - that means at least 15 gold medals* Placed in the top five at every Games since Barcelona in 1992* Our biggest competition likely to come from Brazil* Para-triathlon and para-canoe to make Paralympic debut. Custom Nike Toronto Blue Jays Jerseys . -- The proud fathers huddled near the Dallas Stars dressing room, smiling, laughing and telling stories while wearing replica green sweaters of their sons team. Custom Nike Atlanta Braves Jerseys . -- Aaron Murray threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another score, and led No. https://www.customjerseysnikebaseball.com/ .Y. - Nelson Mandela will be honoured by the New York Yankees with a plaque in Monument Park. 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Olympic champion Andy Murray shrugged off shoulder trouble and the fatigue that followed his heroics in Rio to reach the third round of the Western & Southern Open.On Sunday the Scot came through a gruelling four-set encounter with Juan Martin del Potro to win his second gold medal and barely three days later he was back on court, this time against another Argentinian, Juan Monaco, in Cincinnati.Murray needed treatment on his shoulder during a tricky first set but soon recovered from the niggle to close out a 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 17 minutes.Its really humid here, quite different conditions to Rio, Murray told atpworldtour.com. The court here is pretty fast.dddddddddddd Rio was a lot slower than this. It took a bit of time to get into it, but I did all right.I did two short sessions yesterday and two short sessions today. I sometimes find that rather than doing one long session, if youre going into new conditions, its a bit easier to do a couple of shorter sessions. I feel like I get my timing a bit quicker that way.His next opponent will be South Africas Kevin Anderson, who surprised 13th seed Richard Gasquet to win 6-2 6-4. ' ' '