London 2012 blog

I started swimming when I was five and started competing when I was about eight, for a local club in the diddy leagues. I swim and compete because I like it, it’s fun. I like being busy, I like being active. It’s as simple as that.

I was inspired to take it more seriously when I watched Nyree Lewis swim in the Athens 2004. She got her gold and I wanted to start competitively in disabled sport – I wanted to be her. Seeing her on TV really helped, it really struck a chord.

My first international competition was at the Durban 2006 World Championships. You can’t compete internationally until your 12 and I’d turned 12 two weeks earlier – I was the youngest ever selected.

About two or three weeks ago I went to the trials for the Beijing Paralympic Games. My main event is the 400m Freestyle. I beat my hero, Nyree, and got a world record. It was unbelievable, my proudest moment. I was totally shocked. I hit the edge at the end and saw that the record had been beaten, but I didn’t know immediately it was me. You can’t tell because it's a multi-disability event, so swimmers finish at different times but may be the fastest for their classification. (My classification is S6, which is for swimmers with Dwarfism, which I have; no use of their legs; or coordination problems). I asked the girl next to me 'who got that'…it was me!

Me, exhausted after my swim:


We used to live in Walsall but moved to Swansea last year specifically to help with my training. I train eight times a week, a total of 16 hours. My morning sessions are 6-7.30am, then I have school, then afternoon sessions 3.30-5pm. I get one day off a week.

Qualifying for Beijing was amazing, but it's really just a bonus: London 2012's my real goal. I'll only be 17 then so I'm hoping I'll be up there competing for gold in front of a home crowd.

Coming into the London 2012 offices for the Paralympic Games briefing for the media last week was really good. I was inspired to get to where I am now by watching the Athens Games, and I think it's really important that all Paralympic sports get more coverage, so more young people with a disability can get inspired too. When I started lots of my friends didn't even know what Paralympic sport was - if it was televised more and talked about in the papers more that would change.