WHEELCHAIR athlete Tanni GreyThompson
has never let disability stand in the
way of sporting fulfilment.
The talented sportswoman has won four London marathons and gold medals at successive Paralympic Games.
She holds no less than six world records and was voted Wales's most outstanding female sportsperson of the last 25 years.
She has also twice been voted the BBC Wales sports personality of the year.
Her services to disabled sport have also seen her honoured with the MBE and, last week, the OBE.
A champion for disabled rights in society as well as on the track, Grey- Thompson was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Wales, Cardiff.
As impressive as the sheer volume of her success is the variety of events at which she excels.
Not many athletes compete from 100m up through the distances to marathon length. But that is the range Grey- Thompson races between, and invariably wins.
Her versatility was shown at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona where she won no fewer than four gold medals.
She has been performing at world- class level for more than 10 years, most of those as just Tanni Grey.
She married fellow wheelchair athlete Ian Thompson, a record holder at 5,000m, in May. They met through athletics and it is in her sport that Grey- Thompson is at her most comfortable.
She has an intense competitive edge and a dedicated commitment to training. Even on honeymoon in Switzerland, the newlyweds found time for training with the Swiss champion.
Games provided the young Grey with an outlet for her enthusiasm as a girl. Born with spina bifida, she needed a wheelchair by the age of eight.
After initially avoiding special school lessons, she found they did at least introduce
her to the sporting horizons available to her.
A born competitior, she tried horseriding and was then introduced to archery, basketball, swimming and tennis.
Although her competitive spirit made her unsuited to team games, she never looked back in athletics.
Her first sorties into wheelchair racing were characteristically successful and she was selected for the Welsh squad for the junior games in 1981.
From there, she never looked back. Her
achievements were all chronicled in a book about her life in 1996 _ Tanni,
the Inspiring Story of a World- Class Athlete.