Training!

It’s not often I get to train with elite athletes but today I did… after a fashion!

I was heading back up north on the train after my visit to my mum, and who should I find myself sitting next to but two stars of Team GB’s utterly brilliant Paralympic squad, Hannah Cockcroft and Nathan Maguire, fresh off the Eurostar from Paris www.bbc.com/sport/articles/c07e3520nvko

With the 2 gold medals Hannah won in Paris, she now has a total of 9 Paralympic gold medals in wheelchair racing, and her fiancé Nathan was a silver medalist in the wheelchair mixed 4 × 100 metres relay at the Tokyo Paralympics, and made 3 finals in Paris.

The pair of them are due to get married in 3 weeks and I was pleased to be able to congratulate them on their athletic achievements and their forthcoming nuptials. In fact I was a little starstruck as you can see in the Extra photo which was very kindly taken by Nathan.

Here’s a clip of Hannah, just a few days ago, winning her 9th Paralympic gold medal https://youtu.be/Lmgf-IVDIAs?si=vqJHkUcLI7cXvr1q

Today’s tune is a controversial one. Ian Dury wrote ‘Spasticus Autisticus’ back in 1981 as a protest against the International Year of Disabled Persons. As a notable disabled person himself, he found the concept of the Year patronising, and wanted to say something more radical and provocative https://youtu.be/6isXNVdguI8?si=Ci8cOBxzSWWSb4rk The song didn’t get much airplay at the time but was finally given a global airing at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics in London, 12 years after Dury’s death, by a cast of hundreds, including Stephen Hawking and Orbital https://youtu.be/RI9AI6VAimY?si=Bflzafiz2Lq_CHUN