Team UnLimbited is watching the Paralympics

Here at Team UnLimbited we love the Paralympics!

Things have come a long way since the first Paralympic Games that took place in 1960 in Rome. Back then, there were 400 athletes from 20 different countries. This year there are 539 events across 22 sports and an estimated 4,350 athletes from 160 countries competing. Pretty amazing, right?

The Paralympics are a display of exceptionally talented individuals, many of who are brilliant role models for the often young recipients of our arms.

With the events underway we thought we would take this opportunity to highlight a few of our favourite athletes.

Jonnie Peacock

English sprinter Jonnie Peacock once said, “I lost my leg aged five… Now I'm 1.9 seconds behind Usain Bolt.”

Jonnie made a name for himself in the London 2012 Olympics when he won Gold in the T44 100m race. In the same year, at just 19 years old he became the world’s fastest amputee sprinter during the US Paralympic Track & Field Trials. His time was 0.06 seconds faster than the previous record.

Outside of the games, Jonnie is committed to raising the profile of Paralympic athletes and normalising disability.

In 2017, he made history when he became the first disabled person to perform on Strictly Come Dancing. He told the Telegraph, "I wanted to go out there, show a blade one week and show kids that it can be cool. But I also wanted to put a pair of trousers on and, to people who perhaps don't know me, make them question which person was the disabled one. Question what an amputee could achieve. Could they lift? Could they do a Viennese Waltz? It's a different audience to the one that watches athletics, so I wanted to change perceptions with that.”

Tokyo will be Jonnie’s third Paralympics and we hope it will be a victorious one! He will be running the 100m in the new T64 category and representing Team GB in the 4x100m universal relay.

Cyclist Dame Sarah Storey

Dame Sarah Storey is the owner of an impressive 14 Paralympic gold medals, a number we hope will increase after Tokyo.

Sarah was born without a functioning left hand but that has not stopped her becoming a celebrated athlete. She is the most successful female British Paralympian of all time.

Tokyo is Sarah’s eight Paralympics, and she will be defending her victories from Rio 2016 in the C5 Individual Pursuit, C5 Time Trial and C4-5 Road Race events. If successful, Sarah will become the most decorated Team GB Paralympian ever, surpassing swimmer Mike Kenny’s 16 gold medals.

Interestingly, Sarah did not begin her Paralympic career as a cyclist but as a swimmer. At just 14 years old in 1992, Sarah won 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and a Bronze at her first Paralympics in Barcelona. She continued to have a successful swimming career, representing Team GB in three other Paralympic games until 2005 when an ear infection meant Sarah made the switch from the water to wheels.

Dame Sarah Storey is truly a remarkable athlete.

Ellie Simmonds OBE

At 26 years old swimmer, Ellie Simmonds, will be attending her fourth Paralympic games this year. We can’t wait to see her swim at Tokyo!  

Ellie, who was born with achondroplasia, competed in her first games in Beijing 2008. At 13 years old, Ellie was the youngest member of Team GB but that did not stop her having a victorious games. Ellie won two Gold medals and broke her own world record by more than seven seconds in the 400m freestyle S6. In that same year she won the BBC's Young Sports Personality of the Year award.

Beijing was just the start of the very successful swimming career and Ellie has gone from strength to strength. She has a “work hard and be yourself” philosophy that we think makes her an excellent role model!

David Smith MBE

This year is looking very promising for David Smith who is the current world, European and Paralympic Boccia champion and the world number one Boccia player in the BC1 category.

Boccia is an indoor sport where each team has six balls and the goal is to be the team with the balls closest to the ‘jack’, a white ball. It’s a sport all about precision.

David, who has cerebral palsy, began playing Boccia at six years old. He spent a lot of time in high school training and improving his skills. Over the years David has become a very established player in the sports and he teaches us all that if you work hard, train and commit to something then you will achieve great things.

We wish David and the rest of the Boccia team the best of luck!

Amy Truesdale

We are looking forward to seeing two-time Taekwondo world champion, Amy Truesdale, in action this year.

Tokyo will be the first time that Taekwondo is a Paralympic event and Amy, who was born without a left hand, will be making her debut as a Paralympic athlete.

Her character and dedication to her sport is the reason we put Amy on this list. We love what she said to the Independent in the run up to Tokyo.

Amy said, “Obviously I want to do well for myself, but I want other people to realise that they don’t have to put limitations on themselves or allow other people to put limitations on them. If you have a goal in life, just because you have a different impairment or a different disability to other people you can (still) achieve whatever you want to achieve in life.”

Good Luck Amy!

We could go on and on with a list of inspirational Paralympic athletes, but this may turn into a book instead of a blog. This fact is testament to the huge talent and inspiration we see every year in the games. We wonder if any recipients of our arms will go on to be Paralympic athletes, only time will tell.

Who is your favourite Paralympic athlete? Let us know by dropping us a message on our social channels; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.