Race for Rio My Life

That's Reece.

That's Hattie.

And me. I'm Julie.

We dream of making it to the Paralympics in Rio,

but we have a long way to go...

Go!

Reece needs to get noticed by the Paralympic selectors.

I know how hard I need to train.

I know my targets.

Hattie must hold her nerve in her first international appearance.

I've already put in four years of hard work.

And I need to show what I can do.

And me? Well, it's complicated.

It's going to take us a lot more hard work.

But we are determined.

This is our Race for Rio...

I'm already a Paralympian.

I made it to London 2012 as part of the Sitting Volleyball team.

Yes, I was there. I was in awe,

representing my country in front of the roaring home crowd.

I'm a through-knee amputee,

which means I don't have a knee.

It was congenital, so it was at birth, and at five I had

an operation to shorten my limb, so I could have a metal bending knee.

And it's made out of titanium, and it's hydraulic,

so the faster I use it the faster it goes.

Some of my friends don't understand why I train so hard

and sacrifice so much for my Paralympic dream.

At a training day, I would wake up, go to school,

and then I'd come home

at around 4:30. Then by quarter past five,

I go to the train station

and catch the train for about an hour travelling time,

and then I go training from 7:30 till 9:30.

And then get the train back home,

and I'm normally home just before 11:00.

It's not really about talent.

It's more about the dedication.

You need to train hard to get the skills.

You need the kind of, the right kind of mindset.

Making it to London was amazing,

but as I'm still young I really crave more.

A second Paralympics would just be incredible.

I will work as hard as I can to get there.

Unlike me, and Hattie,

Reece has not been spotted by the Paralympic selectors yet.

Reece never thought he'd be good at sport because of cerebral palsy,

which affects his speech, muscle strength and co-ordination.

I started running at school, like,

one of my PE teachers said,

"Oh, you've got potential there."

When I were younger, and I were kind of rubbish at sport, really.

I was struggling just to throw a bean bag in a bucket.

Me having cerebral palsy

made people perceive that I wasn't very good at sports.

They used to just expect you not to be able to run, to catch, to throw,

because they didn't have no knowledge about the disability.

Reece has surprised not only himself,

but his dad, his mum, twin brother Kaylan and sister Becks.

My family is really supportive.

We do fall out and have banter, like any other family.

But, really, they really supported me

about what I'm doing at the moment and they really do

think that I can do well in it.

And even my twin brother, Kaylan.

Oh... that isn't fair!

Even though he might not like it, he is very supportive,

but he never really, like, in not a very obvious way.

I do get kind of jealous with it sometimes.

Secretly, I am really proud of him, but I don't really tell him, really.

Because that would be another thing what he can wind me

up about, "Oh, you're proud of me though."

Even though Reece isn't on any official Paralympic training squad,

he pushes himself really hard.

Two nights a week with the local Rotherham Harriers Athletics club...

And three nights at the gym.

Having school and going to the gym

and training all in one week

all during the year is a huge amount of pressure on me.

Because I need to focus on my studies,

just in case running doesn't go into my favour,

so I can get a job.

And if running does go in my favour, it's a bonus.

And it would earn him cool points with his mates too.

If Reece made it to Rio, that would be pretty amazing,

and I'd be proud of him.

I'd be screaming in front of the TV,

just cheering him on.

Set!

Go!

With the hundred metres,

I love the fact that there's someone to race against.

And you have to beat them.

You've got no other choice and it's over

and done with within a split second.

You've only got the time it takes you

to get from the start line

to the finish line to think about it. Which isn't long.

And all you're thinking is I need to be in.

It gives me more motivation.

Hattie has already made it on to the Archery GB Training Squad.

That's pretty cool. But there was a time

when she didn't think she could take part in any sport.

I got into archery four years ago.

I fell ill at the age of eight...

And my illness basically is an undiagnosed illness,

so I don't have a name for my illness.

Basically it affects my legs.

I'm paralysed from the waist down. I have pain 24/7,

so I have pain all day.

When I was able bodied, I was a massive swimmer and gymnast.

So I thought, "My world has ended."

I didn't want to carry on with life.

Mum and Dad were like,

"Hang on though, because there's the Paralympics.

"Don't rule sport out completely."

So they took me up to Stoke Mandeville.

Up there, they do weekends where you can go and try

different disabled sport.

And I shot my first six arrows and they all went in the gold.

He says, "you've got a natural talent".

I'm like, "Nah, it's not me".

So I shot my next six arrows and they all went in the gold.

He spoke to Mum and Dad at the end of the day and he says,

"Your daughter's got natural talent.

"You need to get her into a club as soon as possible."

"I will put her name forward to GB.

"We'll probably watch her for a year

"and then we'll see where it takes us from there."

Since then, Hattie has earned a place on the Archery GB

training squad, shot the highest scores for her age in her county

and won a quiver load of medals.

She's now preparing for her first ever international appearance.

This is my Dad's garage, AKA the shooting range.

I come in here when the weather's bad.

We shoot up to half an hour to an hour, or 100 arrows.

And GB squad like us doing this to make our muscles remember

what we're meant to be doing.

In a few days, Hattie will be heading to Stoke Mandeville

famous for being the birthplace of the Paralympics.

There, she must hold her nerve in her first international.

Today, I've been invited here to the English Institute of Sport

so people who are interested in getting involved in disability

sports can meet Paralympians like me

and my friend Sam Ruddock and personal hero

Hannah Cockcroft.

This is Sam Ruddock, T35 sprinter.

100 and 200 metres. You forgot that bit.

-100 and 200 metres.

-There's all sorts of sprints.

Yeah. I do 100, personally.

And 35 is the cerebral palsy classification.

-Yeah. And I'm T42, which is...

-The amputee classification.

-Which is...we're better.

-So there's nothing really wrong with you.

What? Well, there's nothing wrong with you. you've got all four limbs.

-But you're missing one.

-Yeah, but yours are all...weird.

-We could argue about this...

-Yeah, I know...

So here is one of the Paralympic legends, Hannah Cockcroft.

Double gold medallist and MBE.

That's me - hi!

It's so good to catch up and talk about the games.

Kind of wish we did it every day, you know?

It's living with your best friends, for like a month,

and taking part in something

that was the greatest thing that Britain's ever seen, I guess.

I know. I loved meeting all the different people though.

-Can I touch your medals, Hannah?

-Of course you can, there you go.

-Don't drop them.

-I'll try not to.

We've had a few people drop them here.

Really? Chipping the chair?

I'm not bothered about the chair, what about the medals?!

Chipping the medals.

I'm proud that I was alongside Hannah and Sam in 2012,

but my sitting volleyball team didn't win any medals.

And, now, six months after the games,

we've had some really bad news.

When UK Sport announced that sitting volleyball would have it's

funding cut it really was a massive shock.

London really made me want Rio even more. And I want it

so much that I'm willing to train as hard as I can to try and get there.

So at the minute, I'm just doing other sports that I enjoy.

And if that takes me further then that's great.

At the moment I've been doing a lot of running, which is sprinting.

I do feel pressure to keep my school grades up,

because if they slip it would be down to sport.

So at the moment, it's just a matter of

keeping my grades up. People don't realise that to become

as good as we are, we have to keep training.

And to get even better you have to keep training.

As well as training in the evening,

I'm lucky my school has an amazing gym, so I can work out here too.

And what training have you done this week since I saw you last?

On Monday I had athletics,

on Tuesday I was down at the track.

tonight I'm doing more athletics.

Sometimes she looks like she's struggling. So,

she comes into school quite tired,

cos she'll probably just be running round

the track for like a couple of hours.

Whilst I'm at home, eating.

I don't know how she gets so much drive.

I think the Paralympics has really boosted her confidence

and now she's on to go do anything really.

I'd say, out of the sort of 25 or so students that I work with

on the performance programme, she probably has one of the most

can do attitudes in that she never lets anything stop her

and always has a go at everything as well.

She's a real pleasure to work with. Very motivating for me as well,

and inspiring to other students.

Somebody once said to me that hard work beats talent

when talent doesn't work hard.

But I think that Julie has a little bit of both of those.

Awww. Thanks, Mrs Williams.

I've got a twin brother Joseph, who also does athletics.

He's a hammer thrower. He helps me through a lot of things.

He gives me advice.

We do get competitive at things but obviously his main sports,

like rugby aren't exactly ones I'm going to get great at.

So we kind of just support each other

and talk to each other, which is really good.

When we were kids she was not very sporty at all,

she was always the academic one and I was always the sporty one.

She will definitely keep it up.

And she definitely has the character to be very determined.

My sprint times are really good even on my hydraulic leg.

But to get one step closer to Rio, I will need to get a running blade.

Even though he hasn't been talent spotted yet, Reece's family

have already started to dream

about having a paralympian in the family.

Rebecca, Reece, Kaylan! Breakfast!

If he made it, it would be absolutely amazing,

and I would be really proud of him.

I just think it would be a free holiday though,

-to be honest with you.

-So you need to do it, you need to get to Rio.

For Kaylan to get his holiday,

Reece's next step is to get noticed by British Athletics

at their Open Day in Sheffield.

It'll be the first time they will see Reece sprint

and he really needs to stand out.

Do you get nervous when you're racing?

Course I do. Run faster, in't it?

If you didn't get nervous you'd be cocky, wouldn't you?

No-one likes a cocky person.

No. Nobody likes a cocky person.

Hattie's talent was discovered at an event like this

and now she's on the archery training squad.

Reece is hoping to make a good impression on Katie

from British Athletics.

She's one of the team of people who helps decide which athletes

get selected for training programmes.

Today for us is about giving the athletes

an opportunity to come along and find out what

other pathways there are available in Paralympic athletics.

When we're spotting talent within Paralympic athletics,

a lot of the time we're just looking for naturally sporty,

athletic people.

You know, regardless of their experience within the sport,

just the enthusiasm. And then the build, body shape.

As well as the top coaches giving advice,

my friends Sam and Hannah are here to inspire

and help out with the training.

I'm not that small, guys!

I started out wheelchair racing on a day like today

and I've seen some

incredible young people here today, coming and having a go.

And that is the beginning of their new life.

Keep your arms out, like a cross.

I avoided athletics all the way through my childhood

and growing up, because I had cerebral palsy.

I couldn't walk very well, I could barely even sprint.

So the prospect of athletics actually scared me.

One, two, three, team! Yeah, buddy.

I guess without athletics, I wouldn't be where I am today.

It most definitely has changed my life completely. I mean,

it gave me a complete new sense of confidence and independence

and kind of freedom.

And it all comes with sport. And it all comes with athletics.

And just being able to say that, yeah,

I can go really fast, and, you know,

I got two gold medals doing it, so it's kind of made my life

what it is today. So incredible.

I know what she means. I would love to win gold.

Reece would too!

But gold medals are a long way off for him.

If he does well today and stands out from all the other athletes here,

he could be one step closer to his dream.

But he will have to wait until the end of the day to find out.

Hattie's next step in archery is to attend her very first

international event at Stoke Mandeville.

The GB coach will be watching Hattie closely to see

if she can hold her nerve and shoot straight under pressure.

Diamond was very important to me because it's my first

international, there's people coming from all over the world.

You want them to see how good you are.

And there's people from the Paralympic Archery Committee.

I have to keep my nerve and keep cool and calm

and collected about it.

But also shoot strong

and make sure that every shot is as clean as I can make it.

Hattie is so determined to do well she's

been training from her hospital bed.

Yeah, I have been in the hospital quite a lot recently.

With archery you have exercises you can do,

so I've been able to do them through my hospital appointments.

And from my hospital bed and stuff.

I have joked, should put a boss down the end of the corridor

and I'll shoot from my hospital bed.

But for some reason they said no.

Hattie's mental strength is incredible. And crucial for archery.

The sport demands total precision and concentration.

So to keep her 100% focused for Stoke Mandeville, Simon,

a sports psychologist, is helping Hattie get in the zone.

What we're going to do, the connection between your mind

and your body is your breath, OK? Is your breathing.

I think these sessions with Simon are really helpful.

We have a really good in depth conversation on how my last

competition went, how I felt afterwards.

So my brain is ready and engaged. And also visually, so

visualising my really good arrows hitting the custard, or the gold.

Absolutely. So if you say I'm going to try to do something,

you're kind of giving yourself a little bit of a get-out clause.

Some of the mental side of things does help me

in every day-to-day life.

I think being disabled, you find a lot of hurdles and you can find

a lot of negatives within your life. But it's OK,

because I can do archery, I can compete for my country.

I can still go out with my friends,

I can still have a really good laugh.

And I'm thankful to Simon, cos I think it's helped me

even more as a person.

What we're doing here,

is helping just kind of unscrew the jar of potential.

In preparation for a competition,

us athletes will do anything to give us the edge over our competitors!

Do you think this haircut is going to have any influence on how

-you perform at the week?

-Yeah, it will make me more streamlined.

Hattie's put in the training, now she just has to prove

she can hold her nerve and stay focused under

pressure during her big event in a few days' time. Good luck, Hattie!

And wish me luck too.

This is a huge new step for me. I've got my blade!

When I got the new leg I did realise the difference really quickly.

And it was exciting to learn how to use it better,

which I'm doing at the moment cos it's quite new.

Most amputees wouldn't be able to get one without raising

a fund or purchasing it.

I'm really lucky to have this. As my running times are actually good,

my coach recommended me for sponsorship,

so I got the blade on loan.

If I wasn't sponsored, the blade alone would have cost £1,500.

To keep it, I just need to show that I use it consistently,

continuously, show that I'm getting better on it.

It's very fair, because it's not just a cheap bit of equipment,

so if they're going to give it to someone then

they want to give it to someone who's actually using it.

It wants to hit the boot here and come down, bang.

It'll take some time.

At the moment, volleyball training is quite inconsistent

because of funding problems, so I'm more consistent

in my athletics training.

My next personal target is to keep training and

probably in the long term, will just be getting my time lower

and lower and lower.

Until I can start competing at maybe a slightly higher level.

Reece has been at Sheffield all day now working hard.

But has he done enough to stand out from everyone else

and impress Katie from British Athletics?

There's a couple of athletes that we've seen today that we'll

look to approach.

Just from first sort of instincts and looking at them,

they're athletic, they're fit,

they're enthused to take it further,

and they're in a good training environment.

Set... HE BLOWS THE WHISTLE

So Katie has only chosen two out of everyone here.

Is Reece going to be one of them?

I've seen you on the track, you're very quick out of those blocks,

-aren't you?

-Yeah.

-You've been working on that.

-And we want you to keep up that work.

-Yeah.

We're going to monitor your performances through competition.

And I do speak to your coach regularly as well, to see

that you're doing what you should be doing.

-And you're going to be on our radar.

-Yeah.

-How does that sound?

-Pretty good.

-OK. Cool.

I'm really excited, because I wouldn't have thought

that from just starting four months ago she said that

I've got potential talent. It's unbelievable.

That's fantastic news! I'm so happy for Reece.

I know how hard it is to get noticed as an athlete

and Reece is already starting to stand out.

It's going to take a lot more hard work

and Reece has to get faster, but after today, he's in with a chance.

It's now Hattie's big day.

Her first appearance in an international competition.

Six years ago, I never thought we'd even get to

an event like this for Hattie.

She, you know, thought her world had ended.

Sport was never going to be her thing.

The atmosphere is electric here today.

We've got a load of countries

from all over coming and shooting, and we're all supporting

each other, as well as trying to beat each other at the same time.

To be here today

and shooting against the gold medallist

and the silver medallist from last year,

it's rather amazing that I've actually,

I've got myself here. That nobody's handed it to me.

It is very unusual for a 14-year-old to be at a shoot of this standard.

If she's unable to, say, cope with the pressure

and she gets very nervous, she might find today

that she herself doesn't feel like going on.

So it lets us look and see as coaches

if we think that she has the mental capacity

to deal with it.

Hattie's doing really well. She's got 173 in two dozen.

The highest she can get is 720.

But, yes, she's doing OK. That means she's...

she's on track.

So far, so good.

Hattie now just needs to keep on shooting straight and true.

CLOCK BEEPS

I feel it went really well, better than I expected.

There was a few dodgy arrows. I know where I went wrong with that.

It felt really amazing amongst all of these different

international archers. I'd love to do it again,

and hopefully next time I might be one of the elite archers.

This is Mel Clarke.

She's a world champion, won medals in two Paralympics

and is Hattie's friend.

Like Hattie, Mel became disabled when she was young.

I think she did really well, you know.

She shot a personal best and the weather's been quite tricky.

So, she looks quite pleased with herself.

She came over and was bouncing. So, yeah, it was a good competition

and a good result for her. It's a challenge to compete on a field

when there is international archers here.

There's a lot of paralympians here.

A lot of people who've achieved great things. And to hold the nerve

and to shoot as well as she did is phenomenal.

And stands her in great stead

for international competitions in the future.

Knowing what Mel's been through, it really does make you

determined to overcome whatever comes in your life as well.

And yeah, I think she's a really big inspiration

in my life at the moment.

Only at the moment though.

She performed very well, she really did.

Her performance today was really good.

We couldn't have asked any more from her.

The fact that she was able to cope with the additional pressures

was absolutely excellent. Because if you looked along the line

today, many of these people,

many of these archers were quite stressed.

They might not have shown it,

but there was quite a few of them stressed,

not happy with their performances, things like that.

But Hattie did just...keep calm.

She kept on with it.

I am looking definitely towards 2020 with Harriet.

To give her that depth of experience.

But you never know, Rio is there.

And I think, as you saw, she's a very determined young lady,

and I think that the possibility is that she may make it,

with a lot of hard work.

With her attitude at the moment, if that continues, she's got it.

I'm now training with Hayley Ginn.

She trained gold medallist Jonnie Peacock

and I'm lucky to have her coaching me.

I've continued to train hard, so I'm allowed to keep my blade.

Nine...ten...

She's getting on fantastically well.

The biggest thing with Julie is her ability to overcome that

fear of something new.

So obviously with trying these new prosthetics,

the blade as such, if she falls over she gets up and carries on.

And physically with the power she has,

she's able to throw herself, literally, into the training.

One and...go!

I'm definitely getting more used to the blade now.

I'm using it more, it's fitting better

and everything is in place just to get better technically now.

One...

One thing we certainly don't have to work on with her is

her motivation. But the biggest, most important thing for me

is making sure that she doesn't take on too much.

And that she doesn't burn herself out.

With the attitude that she has to the sport,

and the physical attributes she has as an athlete,

already, I think she's in with a very good chance.

I'm not really targeting a specific time for Rio,

but if I want to get to get to that final,

I do have to knock seconds off.

For a good podium potential time, I have to be sub 16.

For someone in my class, it's,

that's what you have to get to be on top of the world.

So this is just the beginning of our long Race for Rio...

Hattie was amazing. She kept her cool at her first international.

And that hard work's paid off.

Reece got noticed by British Athletics.

So it's in me reach now...

As for me, well as I said, it's complicated,

but unofficially I'm ranked

the 10th fastest in the world in the 100 metre sprint!

And I will continue to do whatever it takes to get to Rio.

Wish us luck!