Browse content similar to Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Winner of 11 Paralympic Gold Medals. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Now it is time for HARDtalk. Who are the most ambitious, dedicated | :00:09. | :00:14. | |
star in the London 2012 Olympics. | :00:14. | :00:19. | |
Many more will figure in the Paralympic Games which will follow. | :00:19. | :00:22. | |
Thousands of disabled competitors will be straining every sinew not | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
just to win gold, but also to convince the world their sporting | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
prowess matches that of Usain Bolt and the rest. I talk to Dame Tanni | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
Grey-Thompson, who won 11 paralympic golds on the track, and | :00:33. | :00:40. | |
is now an influential voice in UK sport. Has the time of the disabled | :00:40. | :00:50. | |
:00:50. | :01:21. | ||
When welcome to HARDtalk. Throughout your adult life you | :01:21. | :01:27. | |
worry deeply competitive athlete. Then in 2007 you stopped. Has it | :01:27. | :01:33. | |
left a hole in your life? Not at all. I was very fortunate that my | :01:33. | :01:39. | |
coach was an ex- athlete herself. She was always very influential. In | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
terms of all the athletes she coached she said you need something | :01:43. | :01:48. | |
to fall back on. You need something to do in retirement. I was very | :01:48. | :01:52. | |
fortunate. I got to choose my retirement date. When I had enough, | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
that was it. I had 18 months to think about the crossover and what | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
else I wanted to do. I had already been quite involved in different | :02:00. | :02:06. | |
parts of the sport. I was on the Council of the sports in Wales. It | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
gave me a lot of opportunity to think about what else to do. | :02:09. | :02:17. | |
still say that you live and breathe it sport. Sports administration - | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
and being a key player in UK Athletics - does that give you some | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
of the satisfaction it used to come on the track? There is nothing that | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
will ever be the same again as competing in front of 95,000 people. | :02:28. | :02:37. | |
But I don't want it to be. I get as much enjoyment out of changing | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
rules and making sure that athletes coming through are not fighting for | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
the things I once... I am as ambitious now as I was as an | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
athlete. I would like to talk about some of the fights you have had in | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
your life and sporting career, but now I would like to stick to the | :02:52. | :03:02. | |
present.Heavily involved in London 2012. You say - "the London | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
Olympics greatest legacy is that they will enhance the Paralympic | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
movement more than any other host city has done". What makes you so | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
confident? I think it is the passion we have for sport in this | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
country. We don't lose belief in ourselves that much. Does that | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
apply to the Paralympics as well as... Most people would probably | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
describe the Olympics as the main event. In 1996 the Lottery Act | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
changed because the Olympics were disastrous. We won a single gold | :03:33. | :03:41. | |
medal. We had to change. There was nothing in Paralympic sports. This | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
meant for the first time that Paralympian could access the same | :03:44. | :03:50. | |
funding to train. For us as athlete it put us on a whole new level. If | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
you compare us to around the world, we get better media coverage, | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
better sponsorship and support. It is about spreading those messages | :03:58. | :04:04. | |
to make sure other countries take the steps to come to where we are. | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
Before we get into the detail of what other countries are doing when | :04:07. | :04:13. | |
it comes to disabled sport, London has recently seen terrible riots. | :04:13. | :04:15. | |
There is an international perception that there is a security | :04:15. | :04:20. | |
problem in London on its streets. Will that affect the Olympics? You | :04:20. | :04:24. | |
worried organiser not just for the Paralympics - but a whole thing. | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
don't think the recent events will affect the games. The Sports | :04:28. | :04:34. | |
Minister and everyone involved has always said, in terms of security, | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
the budget is not going to change. We have always taken security | :04:38. | :04:45. | |
really seriously. It has been a dent, though, in confidence? It is | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
a challenge - but the UK is still one of the safest countries in the | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
world. We have to make sure people feel comfortable. Do you think | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
there is a danger that the Paralympics is seen across the | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
world as a post script to what we would call the able-bodied | :05:02. | :05:11. | |
Olympics? I picked up one statistic the other day - on the last | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
Olympics they had over 2000 staff covering the main thing, but five | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
people at the Paralympics. That says something, doesn't it? About | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
international interest in the sport they were involved in. Absolutely. | :05:24. | :05:33. | |
That is where we have an awful lot of work to do. It is bizarre, the | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
country - the USA, that has the strongest disabled policies in the | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
world, they have good sponsorship for athletes, they are not | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
interested in showing the Paralympics. Until the US changes, | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
it will be hard to convince the rest of the world. I still get | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
people saying things like the real Olympics, the main Olympics... | :05:52. | :05:59. | |
can see that might but you. One of your great rivals over the last | :05:59. | :06:06. | |
years, a Canadian track athlete in the Paralympics, she has said that | :06:06. | :06:14. | |
she believes Equality will be achieved when she is able to | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
compete in an integrated Olympics. When her 100 metre sprint in her | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
wheelchair is in the Olympic Stadium with all the other events | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
that go on in the main Olympics. Is that what you want to see? It would | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
be amazing if we could run an integrated games, but the reality | :06:29. | :06:35. | |
is different. Why can't you? size - you have 10,000 at the | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
Olympics, 5,500 at the Olympics - there is not a city that could hold | :06:39. | :06:48. | |
a games of that size. The aesthetically pleasing events, | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
wheelchair racing, maybe tennis or swimming, would move over to the | :06:53. | :07:03. | |
Olympics, the others would get dumped.... I suppose that if I had | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
a chance to compete at the Olympics, there would have grabbed it. But I | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
feel a responsibility for the other athletes who would have been dumped | :07:10. | :07:15. | |
off the face of the Earth. I'm very interested in that phrase used "as | :07:15. | :07:25. | |
:07:25. | :07:28. | ||
they tickly pleasing" is that how easy it? -- alphabetically pleasing. | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
I think the public is slightly more comfortable sports we don't see the | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
impairment in some way. Wheelchair racing looks like cycling - the | :07:36. | :07:42. | |
wheelchair makes it sexier. We have a job to do. The same as in women's | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
sport. We have the same job to do - making people watched disabled | :07:45. | :07:51. | |
sport. I'm going to come back to sport at the moment. Now I want to | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
take you back your child would. I would like to find out what made | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
you different. You had spina bifida, there are all sorts of people | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
across this country and the world were brought up with a real | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
physical problem, difficulties they have to overcome. What made you so | :08:06. | :08:13. | |
determined to become an elite athlete? Given the problems he | :08:13. | :08:22. | |
faced? I did not face any problems as a child. I couldn't walk until I | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
was seven years old and then I was paralysed. They gave me some | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
advantages in that I was in the mainstream. My parents worked very | :08:29. | :08:34. | |
hard to get me into a mainstream high school. They threatened to sue | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
the council of Wales. If it hadn't been for that my life would have | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
been very different. I don't think I am different because I am in a | :08:41. | :08:50. | |
chair. My stubbornness is a family trait. Stroppy is your description | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
of yourself. (LAUGHTER). | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
I wonder if sport is an outlet in which that bloody-mindedness can | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
have an outlet. You have said you will not be patronised, you will | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
not be condescended to. You're going to find a way to express your | :09:04. | :09:09. | |
talent and determination and sport was it. I am lucky I found sport. | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
If it hadn't been sport it would have been something else. I quite | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
enjoyed school and a number of other things I did. It took me a | :09:16. | :09:22. | |
long time to find athletics as a sport I was good at. By chance I | :09:22. | :09:25. | |
dropped into athletics. I think you're right - it gave me a chance | :09:25. | :09:32. | |
to show people - I can do this. It is an interesting question. How | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
much of my life is affected by my being in a wheelchair? I wanted to | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
prove I could do something because I am in a wheelchair - or was it... | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
I think a lot of it was there any way. One thing that has irritated | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
you in the past - as you accrued all these gold medals and | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
achievements and honours, people have tended to talk of you as | :09:54. | :09:59. | |
somebody who is truly brave and courageous. You have bought against | :09:59. | :10:08. | |
that. Why? Why do those words but you so much? Because you wouldn't | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
call Steve Redgrave's and brave. For 20 years I did something I | :10:12. | :10:17. | |
loved. By train full-time, I travelled the world. That is not | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
being brave. I think there are a lot of disabled people who are | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
brave because there is a lot of discrimination out there. But as an | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
Attlee - it is a great life. But up to a point - Steve Redgrave did not | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
have to battle the things you did. Even resources. Early in your | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
career, when you were going to races you had no resources | :10:37. | :10:43. | |
whatsoever. You were representing Wales and you had to share a best | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
with another competitor. You only had one vest between you. These are | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
things that many athletes ever come up against. Sometimes I found it | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
quite amusing. I have quite a dark sense of humour and I like the | :10:56. | :11:05. | |
challenge. That side of the sport stopped being a challenge - when | :11:05. | :11:11. | |
Even at the end when you were highly honoured and regarded as one | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
of the UK's best athletes, was it still a struggle to get resources? | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
To get the sport treated in the wake you thought it should be? | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
changed during my career. It was miles better by the time I finished, | :11:22. | :11:28. | |
but I think there is a long time to go for disabled athletes. When you | :11:28. | :11:34. | |
came in the top three in the year 2000, you were third - they wanted | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
to bring you up on the stage and they had forgotten to create | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
wheelchair access so you couldn't take the prize. Were you furious | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
about that? Did you then think that you are battling against something | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
that was so much bigger than you? My first thought was that I get to | :11:51. | :11:57. | |
take home a call camera. As a young Tron growing up - most athletes | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
dream of getting in that position. It was about half an hour | :12:01. | :12:03. | |
afterwards when people kept on saying - I am really sorry you | :12:03. | :12:10. | |
couldn't get on stage - I thought, you know what... The media backlash | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
in the weeks that followed meant I had way more publicity because I | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
couldn't get on stage than if somebody had picked me up and shot | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
me on board a head men handled me on. It probably did more for my | :12:23. | :12:32. | |
career... That was a moment when it became clear that you were a | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
national sports star. The idea of sports stars is interesting to me. | :12:36. | :12:40. | |
Every sport needs its biggest names. In the Paralympic movement I | :12:40. | :12:47. | |
guessed the biggest name is the South African man, Oscar. He lost | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
both legs below the knee and he runs on blades. He is called a | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
Blade Runner. He is now running so fast that he was disqualified for | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
the - and I used the phrase - the able-bodied World Championships. He | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
clearly wants to make it against the able bodied top competition. | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
You have a problem with that, don't you? I don't have a problem with | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
Oscar competing at the Olympics and World Championships - I think that | :13:14. | :13:21. | |
is positive. Boarding you - "It is not about his advantage or | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
disadvantage, he is just two different". -- quoting you. I think | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
of the athletes and the rules accept him, he should be allowed to | :13:31. | :13:38. | |
run. What I do think is controversial... Everything we have | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
been trying to fight against an to move the Paralympics to be equal | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
with the Olympics would be knocked back if Oscar competes in the 400 | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
metre a couple of weeks later, or chooses not to compete and then | :13:50. | :13:53. | |
that event at the Paralympics becomes the event for people who | :13:53. | :13:59. | |
were not good enough for the Olympics. That is a very | :13:59. | :14:04. | |
fundamentalist view. You are suggesting that he is betraying the | :14:04. | :14:07. | |
Paralympic movement by wanting to prove himself against able-bodied | :14:07. | :14:17. | |
:14:17. | :14:18. | ||
Any athlete that had the chance to compete at the Olympics, the chance | :14:18. | :14:25. | |
is still greater. We used to have demonstration races at the Olympics | :14:25. | :14:35. | |
:14:35. | :14:36. | ||
and a number of athletes would only compete there. You clearly see the | :14:36. | :14:44. | |
success of the Paralympics as a message to the world about what | :14:44. | :14:54. | |
:14:54. | :14:56. | ||
disability means. Surely the image of lining up for a final, even on a | :14:56. | :15:02. | |
podium, one that not be the best message about what disability | :15:02. | :15:12. | |
:15:12. | :15:13. | ||
means? It is very positive in the Paralympics can gain coverage. | :15:13. | :15:18. | |
There are athletes around the world, for example a South African swimmer, | :15:18. | :15:28. | |
:15:28. | :15:31. | ||
and Jason Smith from Ireland, it is really positive for them. Does it | :15:31. | :15:37. | |
come back to what you were saying earlier, a two Tia Paralympics with | :15:38. | :15:47. | |
:15:48. | :15:49. | ||
some sports more attractive. -- two-tier. That is probably the | :15:49. | :15:55. | |
reality with the Olympics as well. You will always get that in sport, | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
there will always be a hierarchy. Paralympics has fought really hard | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
to keep moving forward, trying to get to the level and it would be | :16:04. | :16:14. | |
:16:14. | :16:21. | ||
ashamed to throw that away. -- would be a shame. One case raises | :16:21. | :16:26. | |
other questions and not the least is the changing nature of | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
technology in sport. Your wheelchairs, over the years you | :16:30. | :16:38. | |
have been racing, in them, they were redesigned, streamlined, | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
aerodynamic and faster. It does raise the question whether of the | :16:43. | :16:53. | |
:16:53. | :17:01. | ||
designers, the technicians are more important in your sport than the | :17:01. | :17:08. | |
athlete. If your wheelchair is so much more aerodynamic, better | :17:08. | :17:13. | |
designed and faster, you are going to win even if you are not the best | :17:13. | :17:21. | |
athlete. Even the countries that don't have as much money to spend, | :17:21. | :17:30. | |
it is not so much different. It is more different with leg amputations | :17:30. | :17:40. | |
:17:40. | :17:43. | ||
and confusion over the technology. Absolutely. A top 400 metre runner | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
does not think the story should be there because there is a real | :17:47. | :17:53. | |
question about a mechanical advantage from the blades. You | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
wonder where this can stop. Prosthetics can become more and | :17:58. | :18:08. | |
:18:08. | :18:11. | ||
more by a mechanically Engineer it. The rules do not allow them to | :18:11. | :18:21. | |
:18:21. | :18:27. | ||
become bionic. He cannot extend his leg link. -- length. And one | :18:27. | :18:34. | |
company talks about blowing the boundary between man and machine. - | :18:34. | :18:42. | |
- blurring. You are excited about the potential but technology is | :18:42. | :18:49. | |
offering to increase your potential for mobility, all sorts of things. | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
Where right think technology is great, companies will develop | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
things that the benefit people in a wider context. People injured in | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
Afghanistan are being assisted. I know people who have got Bluetooth | :19:02. | :19:09. | |
chips in their legs. They can do some amazing things. | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
Psychologically and for rehab, that is usually positive. This leads me | :19:13. | :19:17. | |
to the thought that really struck me when I was reading about your | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
life. You have said that while other people talk about you being | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
confined to a wheelchair, you never had that view. It was a positive | :19:27. | :19:35. | |
for you. Explain that. When I started to lose the ability to walk, | :19:35. | :19:44. | |
a lot of people were obsessed with walking. I could not walk very far, | :19:44. | :19:51. | |
I fell over, I could not carry anything, play with my friends. The | :19:51. | :19:58. | |
gave me a systems. My parents brought me up to believe that if | :19:58. | :20:02. | |
someone had a problem with a wheelchair it is their problem and | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
not mine. I should never be embarrassed, apologetic. That | :20:07. | :20:13. | |
helped me a lot. Not everyone in a wheelchair comes to it the way I | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
did. I have a lot of friends who had dramatic injuries and feel | :20:18. | :20:26. | |
differently. Differences between nations, the awareness of | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
disability is so different. Do you think this sort of achievement you | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
have illustrated in the sporting arena, do they have a knock-on | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
effect both inspiring disabled people and also sending a message | :20:41. | :20:47. | |
to able-bodied people not to underestimate, patronised disabled | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
people. Is there an important message there? I think that is an | :20:51. | :20:56. | |
important and secondary message of the Paralympics. The first message | :20:56. | :21:01. | |
is to say that it is about sport and the second is to say that | :21:01. | :21:09. | |
disabled people can contribute to society. Have you experienced, as | :21:09. | :21:19. | |
:21:19. | :21:21. | ||
an international competitor, have you experienced negative treatment? | :21:22. | :21:31. | |
:21:32. | :21:37. | ||
I have been pub, prodded. -- poked. It still happens to me sometimes. | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
Can you really convince me that the Paralympics can make a difference | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
to that in terms of attitude? think it has made a massive | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
difference and will continue to do so. When you see disabled athletes | :21:51. | :21:58. | |
in public, look around and you see them on posters advertising the | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
Paralympics, the link to sponsorship. It starts to make | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
people feel that it is more normal, unusual and accepted. It cannot | :22:09. | :22:14. | |
change the view of the world but can be positive. The government | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
says it will build a post Paralympics legacy for disabled | :22:18. | :22:28. | |
:22:28. | :22:28. | ||
sport. Then I hear that support teachers are not given mandatory | :22:28. | :22:34. | |
training on how to get disabled children into mainstream sport. -- | :22:34. | :22:44. | |
:22:44. | :22:46. | ||
that teachers of sport. If there is anything that I could achieve in | :22:46. | :22:52. | |
the laws, that is something I would like to do. Also ensure that | :22:52. | :23:01. | |
primary teachers get training in physical education. It is a | :23:01. | :23:07. | |
difficult subject. Legacy is such a buzzword when it comes to the | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
Olympics. What do you believe the legacy of the Olympics, as far as | :23:12. | :23:19. | |
you are concerned with a focus on Paralympics, will be? The immediate | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
increase in the numbers of young people involved like the Wimbledon | :23:24. | :23:32. | |
effect. What is challenging is that everyone is talking about what the | :23:32. | :23:38. | |
legacy will be. As soon as the game's finish, it drops off the | :23:38. | :23:47. | |
face of the Earth. Then it is down to governing bodies, the government, | :23:47. | :23:53. | |
the other home countries to make sure... It is down to your bloody | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
mindedness. Will you be as bloody- minded as an administrator as on | :23:57. | :24:05. | |
the track? Absolutely. Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, thank you for being | :24:05. | :24:15. | |
:24:15. | :24:27. | ||
Turning pretty chilly out there. Most places will start off the day | :24:27. | :24:29. | |
with some sunshine however most places will see increasing cloud | :24:29. | :24:34. | |
through the day. Some rain eventually arriving in Wales and | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
south-west England. The sunny start across Wales will change through | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
the day. An increasing amount of cloud so make the most of the | :24:42. | :24:45. | |
bright conditions first thing on. Northern Ireland, some cloud in the | :24:45. | :24:50. | |
afternoon. A few showers across western Scotland and they will | :24:50. | :25:00. | |
:25:00. | :25:06. | ||
develop elsewhere during the day. The north-east will start off sunny. | :25:06. | :25:11. | |
In rural areas of England, single digits first thing in the morning. | :25:11. | :25:20. | |
Fresh and sunny for eastern England. A cracking start for East Anglia. | :25:20. | :25:23. | |
Sunny generally across southern England but in the far south-west, | :25:23. | :25:26. | |
the possibility of a shower or two. Showers will develop across | :25:26. | :25:36. | |
:25:36. | :25:41. | ||
northern England and Scotland. Some places will catch a shower. For the | :25:41. | :25:50. | |
Midlands and East England it will stay dry. Cooler further west. The | :25:50. | :25:58. | |
rain will spread into Wales and south-west England. By eight | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
o'clock we could see some of the rain in the Manchester area so it | :26:01. | :26:08. | |
could be a little bit damp for the football. Some of the wettest | :26:08. | :26:13. | |
conditions expected across Cumbria as we head into Tuesday. Light rain | :26:13. | :26:23. | |
elsewhere. It will be a much milder night. 13, 14 degrees in the south. | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
Single digits in Scotland. The wet weather will continue with some | :26:27. | :26:37. | |
brightness possible across the south-east. Tuesday is the | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
cloudiest day of the week thanks to the weather front. There is a | :26:41. | :26:44. |