Paralympic equestrian athletes have courage that puts most of us to shame. They are utterly inspirational! Through their love of horses, their competitive spirit and incredible determination, they have achieved greatness - against all odds! Christiansen is one of the stars of British Paralympic dressage. She tells her story and how the sport has changed her life.
"All around the pool there were plastic legs, empty wheelchairs and crutches....so what if you get a "knock back" in life; as long as you have a dream, you can go out there and achieve it!" Sophie Christiansen.
I have always been quite sporty and used to play football and hockey during break at school, but I was constantly picked last for the teams in PE. I didn’t blame my classmates much; being competitive myself I would have found it hard to choose a team-mate like me who does not have full control over any of her limbs if I wanted to win an able-bodied hockey or football match. So it wasn’t until I discovered that Para dressage existed, and I could actually succeed at a sport, that my life completely changed.
Competitors in Paralympic sport are divided into categories (or grades) according to their disability so that competition is fair, but the number one position within each category is still fiercely contested. I have quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy, so I would not compete against someone with only one arm missing as they still have full control over the rest of their body.
I was selected for the Athens Paralympic Games in 2004 at the age of 16. I was taken for experience, and no one expected that I would win a bronze medal. The whole experience was extraordinary and raised my game completely; I learnt the importance of teamwork, became more confident and less self-conscious due to the amount of interviews I had to do, and generally grew up. Athens did more than years of speech therapy for my confidence in communication. Until then I felt that what divided me the most from kids my own age was not that I needed a wheelchair for long distances, but that my speech was not always understood, especially on the telephone, so it was assumed I was not intelligent. But in Athens I learned to get over my fear of speaking in public big time, because I was required to do TV and radio interviews. (I must praise the BBC’s coverage of the Paralympics compared to other countries, by the way.) Sport has not only given me friends through this new-found communication but has put me in the position where I can get on with all sorts of people and my social life has thrived!
After Athens, I began to realise I should start giving something back to all my various support groups. As part of this, when the British Paralympic Association asked me if I could go as athletes' representative to meet a certain mega-star, I was pleased to accept! Sir Paul McCartney had asked the BPA if there was anything he could do to help them in their preparations for the Beijing Paralympics and beyond.
He has great skills in bringing people together. He listened to a description of the organisation of the BPA given by its president, Mike Brace, and asked me questions about how I benefited from it. Then he gave some thought to what expertise he could bring to help us. He decided that an area the BPA lacked, in which he could help, was top-class fund-raising publicity. He collected a team of friends in the media world prepared to donate some of their time, including Luke Scott, son of Ridley Scott, and the staff of Pinewood and Shepperton studios. After filming some of the Paralympic athletes, including me, before Beijing, the result was a slick vieo clip, which you can still find on YouTube and it's still doing its job of bringing in much-needed funds for the BPA. (Click here to view.)
I have also used my increased confidence to accept invitations to talk and attend events at businesses and schools, addressing hundreds of people about how the Paralympics have changed my life. I like speaking to youngsters taking up sport with the hope that they will benefit from similar experiences. I’ve just taken part in a Paralympics GB Talent Day at Brunel University, for example.
Another amazing opportunity was when I was picked, aged 18, along with about twenty other young people, to have my photo-portrait featured in the National Portrait Gallery for an exhibition called "Exceptional Youth" which was designed to show that teenagers are not all "hoodies" with knives. This allowed me to meet some extraordinary people from totally different walks of life, for example Theo Walcott, Daniel Radcliffe and Dizzee Rascal! (More here.)
There is nothing like the thrill of receiving a gold medal as you listen to your national anthem. Competition creates a desire always to improve and do the best you possibly can. I’m not very good at accepting silver medals now, even when I was ecstatic to win Bronze in Athens at the beginning! Bring on 2012! Success, and even failure, at competition in itself had been a kind of therapy for me, and I am indebted to all the groups of people involved in providing me with the opportunities to take those competitive instincts that were awakened at break time in school, to the very top. Without the type of backing I have had, athletes would not have the hope to attend such wonderful events as the Olympic and Paralympic Games which bring the world-wide community together in shared endeavour.
There is one enduring memory that captures what the Paralympics means to me. In the days leading up to competition in Athens, I often went to the recreational swimming pool in the Olympic Village to relax. Here you saw people from different countries, backgrounds and religions of all ages with different disabilities all having fun together. All around the pool there were plastic legs, empty wheelchairs and crutches. To me, the Paralympics are the peoples’ Olympics; not everyone can run as fast as Usain Bolt, but they can associate themselves with what Paralympians do – so what if you get a "knock back" in life, as long as you have a dream, you can go out there and achieve it.
I'd love to hear about your dreams and how you have achieved them (or are going to). Please post some comments below.
Editor's note:
For more about Sophie, read her Biog on Horse Hero and watch the video we made with her at GB squad training.