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Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson

Rob Cole

Tanni Grey-Thompson is one of British sport’s iconic and inspirational figures, the winner of 11 Paralympic gold medals. She was born with spina bifida and realised at the age of 13 that Wheelchair Racing was her sport of choice. In her last year as a junior athlete she won the Junior National title over 100 metres and at 17 she became part of the British Wheelchair Racing Squad. She attended her first Paralympics at Seoul in 1988, where she won a bronze medal in the 400 metres.

Four years later she kick-started a magnificent year with the first of her six victories in the London Wheelchair Marathon and then went on to the Barcelona Paralympics, where she won four gold medals (100, 200, 400 and 800 metres) and a silver in the 4 x 100 metre relay. She also became the first woman to break the 60 second barrier in the 400 metres.

In Atlanta in 1996, she won the 800 metre gold and also picked up silver medals in the 100, 200 and 400 metres. Four years on in Sydney, she went back to the top of the medal rostrum to pick up gold medals in the
100, 200, 400 and 800 metres. She took her tally of gold medals at the Paralympics to 11 with victory over 100 and 400 metres in Athens in 2004.

She also added 5 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals at World Championships and, over her career, Tanni broke 30 World Records on the track. In 1997 she won the Great North Run Half-Marathon in a personal best time of 52 min, 17 sec. She was named Welsh Sports Personality of the Year three times (1992, 2000 and 2004) and in 2000 she was third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year behind Steve Redgrave and Denise Lewis. That year she also received the Helen Rollason Award for her performance at the 2000 Summer Paralympics.

She was awarded an MBE in 1993, OBE in 2000 and made Dame in 2005. In 2010 she became a Baroness and became a member of the House of Lords as a crossbench peer. She was voted ‘UK Sporting Hero’ by UK Sport in 2001 and was also elected to the Laureus World Sport Academy.

Carys Davina ‘Tanni’ Grey-Thompson (Para Athlete) Born in Cardiff on 26 July, 1969