Reid right for 2012 double gold

This month's sporting profile of a 2012 hopeful focuses on a sprinter and long jumper new to Team GB

Sprinter and long jumper Stefanie Reid is fast becoming the British poster-girl for Paralympic sport. Having already appeared on hit Channel 4 programme Inside Incredible Athletes, as well as the recent Visa TV advert, where she is shown running on her blades, her stock is rising rapidly – not bad for someone not only relatively new to the Paralympic world, but also new to her team.

The 27-year-old is a recent addition to the GB Paralympics squad, having competed for Canada at her first Games in Beijing in 2008. Born in New Zealand, Reid moved to North America with her British parents at the age of four. She became disabled following a boating accident as a teenager eleven years ago.

In China, she made a promising start to life as a Paralympian – taking bronze in the T44 200m, and finishing fifth in the long jump. With a string of impressive performances in subsequent Paralympic World Cups and Disability Athletics Challenges, including setting a long jump world record, hopes are high that the biochemistry student can take bigger strides forward in 2012, and bring home double gold for GB.

Reid told Disability Now that competing at London 2012 would be “the culmination of an incredible 12-year journey.”

“In August 2000, I became an amputee, and I thought that I would have to give up my dream of playing rugby internationally. In August 2012, I’m going to be sprinting on a world stage. It’s a dream come true.

“Beijing was my first Paralympics. I was going into it as a rookie, and I had nothing to lose.

“The stakes are much higher this time, and as the world record holder in the long jump, I am going in with a target on my back.

“My biggest competitor in both the long jump and the sprints is Marie-Amelie Le Fur of France. She is small, but she is powerful!”

As a relative newcomer to the GB scene, Reid can bring a unique viewpoint to the relative strengths of the current squad, and feels that things are in extremely good shape with less than a year to go.

“The GB athletics team is looking very strong,” she said.

“The leadership has done an amazing job of producing and identifying young talent, in addition to supporting the veterans. At the IPC 2011 World Championships, over 90 per cent of the team took medals. This is unheard of.”

It’s when talking about how the Games coming to London may affect attitudes to Paralympic sport that she becomes most effusive, perhaps understandably considering she is also married to a fellow Paralympian – Canadian wheelchair athlete Brent Lakatos.

“London 2012 is going to showcase the calibre of athleticism Paralympic sport can now boast. 20 years ago, you could have a full-time job, do a few training sessions after work, and make it into a final, possibly the podium. Now, you have to train full-time and dedicate your life if you want to make an athletics final. Paralympians have become sport professionals, and we have to be as strong and as fit as our Olympic counterparts. What’s most exciting, is the fact that this is still only the beginning.

“Despite the enormous gains in awareness regarding sporting opportunities for those with disabilities, there are still far too many people who don’t participate in Paralympic sport because they are not aware of the opportunities, or they don’t fully believe in their ability to participate. London 2012 will revive and inspire more grass roots opportunities, and Paralympians will serve as role models for what is possible.”

But aside from sport, Reid also believes that disabled people as a whole stand to benefit from the increased coverage and prominence the Paralympics will receive on home soil next year.

She said: “London 2012 is going to change the way the British public view people with disabilities.

“They are going to realize that physical disabilities are not synonymous with labels such as weak, sad, or misfortunate. The public will be exposed to Paralympians who are eloquent, aggressive, attractive, determined, and gifted. I think the nation as a whole will be inspired and forced to rethink old attitudes about human potential.”

• Stefanie Reid is taking part in the “Make Mine Milk” promotional campaign