Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Most successful track competitor in Paralympic history, winning gold medals in four Games despite being born with spina bifida.
On the island
Eight records
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Dunvant Male Choir with the Band of the Welsh Guards
I'm Welsh and went to stacks of rugby games and only knew it as Bread of Heaven until I was much older.
Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus & Stig Anderson
Oh, this is probably my most embarrassing record. ... I'm a huge Eurovision Song Contest fan.
Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)
This is um a theme tune from MASH, which uh was a great favourite of mine when I was growing up, watching on T V as a comedy. And then I don't think I realized the words of it until a lot later.
A few years ago I spent about four months training in Australia, and this was the song that was kind of popular at the time, and it was on the radio every morning when we went to training, so it's probably my second favorite record.
Knowing Me, Knowing You (Alan Partridge Hypnotised)Favourite
Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge in his spoof chat show. ... Ian and I went away to South Africa for a few weeks, and we were staying in the absolute back of beyond. And this is the only tape we took with us. So we actually know it very well
This was just really a a band that were were very popular when I was at Loughborough and it just brings back lots of very happy images of of living in Towers Hall
I just think it's a really great song. There's one line in it which makes me laugh, which is Clowns to the Left, Jokers to the Right, Here I Am Stuck in the Middle With You. Sometimes just a a little bit the way I feel.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:31Was [winning your fourth gold medal in Sydney] the most exciting moment in your life?
It was. I think there were so many mixed feelings with Sydney. So much of it was actually relief more than anything else, because going into the Games had been quite a lot of pressure on me to do well.
Presenter asks
5:42What happened to stop you walking [at age seven]?
Well, I was born with spina bifida but it was very mild and at the same time by sort of coincidence I had a curvature of the spine and really just as I I grew older my spine started to collapse and where my spinal cord had been exposed that sort of became crushed and I became paralysed.
Presenter asks
6:39Why did your parents manage to not allow you to go to special schools?
Well, I think that was something that was very important. ... once I was there and I I started having problems walking, that they started to realise that there was a a separate and segregated school system which I was meant to be in. And then by the time I got to sort of ten and sort of the Education Authority were pushing me to special school, my parents just said no, didn't want it because I didn't need special education. I just needed an accessible school.
The keepsakes
The book
A guide to the island in terms of all the fruit and vegetables and berries
I'm not sure if I'd be allowed to take sort of a a guide to the island in terms of all the fruit and vegetables and berries, if there are any on the island, that I could and couldn't eat.
The luxury
I think probably if I could take five juggling balls with me, 'cause I can only juggle three fairly well, I'd like to do that because that'd just kill loads of time until I was rescued.
Presenter asks
14:15When did you decide [athletics] was really not a hobby, it was something you could make a career out of?
It was probably only really when I was at university. Up until that point, the profile of wheelchair racing wasn't that high and I had always presumed that I was going to have to get a fairly decent job to be able to pay for my hobby.
Presenter asks
24:02Do you think you would have been an athlete if you hadn't had spina bifida?
I think I'm just very competitive. I don't think that is any different. I I've just been competitive in in everything that I've ever done. I I want to be the best I can.
“I think the coverage this time just completely changed the perception of the Paralympic Games. ... they just showed someone winning and everybody else not winning, and it's not, you know, all these poor little disabled people having a go. It's just it's winning and not winning.”
“For me, having a wheelchair has always been something that's been extremely positive.”
“I'm an athlete with a disability or I'm a disabled person and for me being an athlete is the most important thing, so that's the thing I would rather be known as first and foremost.”