Latest / Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub / Mark Colbourne MBE - from zero to hero, British Paralympic Gold Medalist

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Mark Colbourne MBE - from zero to hero, British Paralympic Gold Medalist · Let Them Fly - Heather Harries Ed Hub

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Who would have thought I'd be flying above the Gawa Peninsula with the paragliding club I was part of?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Fell from about 40 feet on the grass and landed feet first and as I landed then unfortunately I snapped my back.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: To be a little bit athlete as a person who's fit and healthy is one thing but to take on that challenge when you've got a disability that's just something else.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: The last month in hospital they snapped me on an indoor bike and it had to straps.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I tucked my feet in and I said to Martin, my feet don't work.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I need to do a hang on and it came back with a roller bandage.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it bandaged my feet to the pedal so they couldn't slip off.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm pedaling in this gym and I'm thinking, oh my god.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Tears.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Let Them Fly with me, Heather Harris.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever wondered whether your child is on the right path, this podcast is for you.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Each week we share stories that remind us as just how resilient people can be.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm joined by Paralympic gold medalist and MB Mark Colburn, who, after a life-changing accident, Mark rebuilt his life to become a world champion.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: But this conversation isn't just about medals, it's about bouncing back, believing in yourself, and helping children discover that setbacks don't have to define their future.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Mark, welcome to Let Them Fly.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: My pleasure.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the invitation.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a joy to have a Welshman on, as you know.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like c countrymen, we we just get on, don't we?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, very much so.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, Mark, tell us a little bit about yourself.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about your story.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, very much.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, born and bred in South Wales in the wonderful town of Tradigar, which is a miner's town or a steel town.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess it was the uh, you know, the environment that made Great Britain, you know, what it is today with the steel that was produced, you know, in Ebervale and obviously the ironworks of Tradiga.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I guess Tradiga was famous for one person, you know, in um in my history books, and that was Anyran Bevan, who was, for the audience who doesn't know, was the founder of the NHS.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: So Anyiron Bevan obviously put Tradiga um you know on the map, you know, for sure.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess growing up in the 70s and the 80s, being prevalent to health and well-being, you know, and sport and activity and movement.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: So growing up with no brothers or sisters, you know, obviously I had to fight my own battles, as they say, and I loved it.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the, you know, the the valleys for me is still running through my, you know, through my DNA today.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a great childhood, loved school, lots of sport, you know, which was a a great feeling for me.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: I got married at 21, actually.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then my daughter then arrived in 1994, so you know, she's now 32 and about an inch taller than me, actually.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So how time flies.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: But great childhood.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, obviously saw the valleys and certainly South Wales go through a lot of different transitions from the heavy industries to the coal mines to the pits to the steelworks, and then unfortunately saw it all, you know, dissipate away.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, so it was um yeah, it was a hell of a hell of a childhood to say the least.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's something very, very wonderful about growing up in a small town or village in Wales where everybody knows everyone else.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me, how did you go from a small town boy in Wales to gold Olympic champion?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I keep pinching, keep pinching myself now, actually.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think the the journey started in 1980 when my late father and I was watching Daly Thompson on the TV, watching, you know, Daly Thompson win his gold medal at the uh the Moscow Olympics.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember saying to my dad, how come this guy is so good?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was into sport, I was playing rugby football for the county, and my dad, God love him, said, Well, he eats all his greens, Mark, and he drinks lots of water, and he goes to bed really early.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sat there as a cheeky 10-year-old child thinking, I love my dad unconditionally, but what a load of nonsense, you know?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: What a load of nonsense.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And yet, then four years later, when I watched Daily Thompson from the same sofa win another gold medal in the LA Olympics in the decathlon, I genuinely thought my dad had cracked the code to win the Olympic gold medal.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: So at that point, I became coachable.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: I started listening to my peers, you know, even though I always listened to my dad.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: But my dad was a crane driver.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, what does my dad know about Olympic sport?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously, as we all know, my dad was a visionary, you know, he certainly was.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that incentive, that intrinsic motivation, allowed me to almost fall in love with movement.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: And little did I know, then I became obsessed with dopamine, obviously, you know, later on in life.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: So training, playing sports, you know, racing, it just it just came normal and natural to me, you know.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: So if we fast forward, as I said, I got married when I was 21.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: My wife and I then decided, you know, 14 years later, to part company.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I became divorced in 2005.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the job I had was in the capital of Wales, you know, in Cardiff.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I moved to Cardiff working for a PLC company, and I guess it was just a a new form of life for me, you know, living in a big city, going from a very small mining town of 7,000 people to now live in a city with 300,000 people, you know.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a great self-development phase for me, you know, working for this PLC company, big salary company car, weekends off, which meant that I could then do more sport, race in triathlon, rock climbing.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then in 2008, I qualified as a paragliding pilot because that was one of my dreams, to get that Peter Pan feel in, that moment when your feet leave the floor.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess a year later, you know, who would have, who would have thought I'd be flying above the Gowa Peninsula, um, above Swansea, about 40 feet above the ground with the paragliding club I was part of.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess I just ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: My canopy, you know, I had a full collapse, fell from about 40 feet onto grass and landed feet first, and as I landed, then unfortunately I snapped my back.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: So, and they say life begins at 40, Heather, and it certainly did for me.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: In a very different way.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So before you had your accident, were you when you were doing taking part in sports, were you competitive?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I played volleyball for Wales when I was 20 for three years.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'll never forget, you know, making that transition from rugby football athletics into you know what I regard as a high-impact sport, you know, which is volleyball.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved three things.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: I loved the competitiveness for sure, the team ethos, you know, of those players, you know, basically gelling and then representing my country, you know, in three British championships was yeah, it was just an incredible feeling.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Was this indoor Welsh volleyball or was this on the beach in the skimpy?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, don't don't give your audience that picture, please.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um we we yes, it was indoor, but we did play outdoor tournaments.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we played Dunning Pool in Dorset in the UK, which was great fun.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just a weekend festival of volleyball and partying.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite volleyball's quite hard.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's very difficult, yeah, very difficult.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I was lucky to go to to a British um trial, a British Olympic trial in Lillershaw in the UK, the uh Olympic training camp.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I I'll never forget walking in for this one-week training camp, 1.83 metres tall or six foot one, and being the shortest person there.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking round at these giants, you know, and I just said, Oh my gosh, I'm up against it, you know.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I loved it, it was great fun.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing, and that's that's quite um you've almost had two Olympic opportunities there.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you had your accident, and how did it feel?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because you were paralyzed in a bed, probably with a prognosis of not being able to walk.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: How did that feel?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the first three months was a state of confusion.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, when you, for instance, for your audience, if you break an arm or a leg, normally three or four or five months the cast comes off, you do your real rehabilitation, you go back to work or school or whatever.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: But when you damage the spinal cord, even the consultants like, I really don't know what's going to happen, you know.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that for me was worse, you know.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I spent 94 days on my back, staring at the ceiling, no motion, no feeling, just thinking, well, this is probably the end, you know.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas I've had that 25 years of sport, movement, activity, health, and well-being, and now all of a sudden it stopped.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: And to have all of that removed out of my life, I think it was probably more difficult than the movement, if that makes sense, you know.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but a big, you know, a big thanks and a big help to the NHS in Cardiff, you know, in Rookwood Hospital, to go through that rehabilitation phase, six months in total.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'll never forget, you know, leaving Rookwood Hospital when my late father came to collect me, and Mr.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Inman, who was the consultant who I'd got to know really, really well, you know, told him all about my life, my movement, my sport, etc.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll never forget him saying to my dad when my dad came to collect me, look after him.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: He's a good one.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's so lovely.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, at what point in that sort of 94 days did you know that you'd even be able to walk again?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they finally lifted me out of the hospital bed with a hoist, and then they give you a Zimmer frame, a walk-in frame.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um it had my name on it.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was really embarrassing.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: But it was just that one step towards the future, you know.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then going through the rehabilitation of learning to walk with what they call lower leg paralysis.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: So only half of my legs work, okay?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So the main primary muscles, my glutes, hamstrings, feet, and calves, they don't work.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: So all of my drive and functionality is actually from my quads and my hip flexors, which is why I walk like Charlie Chaplin, which is fine, you know.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's always good to have a personality.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: 100%, you know, always look on the positive.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it was at that moment when I went from my walk-in frame onto the crutches, and then I thought that's an improvement, yeah, you know, rather than still on this frame, you know.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: And when I got to the point where I was, I suppose, functional, um, where I could go to the shower, I could go to the bathroom on my crutches using what they call orthosis.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I've got drop feet, you know, or drop foot in both feet, I have to wear supports to fix my feet.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: So all of a sudden, then you become self-functional.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then I did my drive-in test.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Literally, the last week I'm in hospital, and I'll never forget speaking to the instructor.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: After I'd done the one-hour test, he signed me as a pass.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Great, thank you.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Oh, I just need to complete the, you know, the box at the bottom with your disability.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Lower leg paralysis, broke my back at T12.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: I said, and by the way, my feet don't work.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And he went, Oh my gosh, I'm glad you told me now, and not at the beginning, because he was concerned, you know?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's having that personal ability to be functional even when you have a disability.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: But you've gone, I mean, what a remarkable story.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you've gone from almost no hope, not even know if you're going to walk, to Paralympic gold medalist for cycling.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: At what point in your journey did you ever think that was going to be possible?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think in the beginning, you know, when I left hospital, I started cycling with a disability.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: How did you know you could cycle?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: The last month in hospital, they sat me on an indoor bike.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it has toe straps.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I put my feet in.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, I'm wearing these supports.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I said to Martin, I'll never forget Martin, who was the physio sort of helper.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Hang on, my feet don't work.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because if I start to push, my feet are going to fall out to the toe straps.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Oh, hang on.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: And he came back with a roller bandage and he bandaged my feet to the pedals so they couldn't slip off.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: True story.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm peddling in this gym and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, this now starts to feel normal.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Did you cycle?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Were you a cyclist before of any shape?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: I've been cycling since I was about eight.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: So a long, long competitively.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I raced triathlon for about 10 years, which is the Welsh Triathlon League.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess I was a strong cyclist, but if you think of triathlon as swim, psycho, run, it's it's good to be the best of all averages, if that makes sense, you know.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved it.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was top 20 in Wales for my age group, which is okay, which is fine.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: But as I said in the beginning, my my journey of sport started 1980 watching Daily Thompson.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that was the intrinsic desire to maybe one day become a professional athlete.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was just a dream.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was just a thought and a feeling.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: But this is the kicker.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: After leaving hospital, I went to meet Disability Sport Wales in Cardiff, which is a wonderful charity that helps disabled people of all ages, children all up to, you know, the oldies like me.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: And help those people to be coached in sport, any sport, any Paralympic sport.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I suddenly realized that I was actually in an environment with other people who were also disabled.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Of all ages.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Was it difficult to think of yourself as disabled?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: The first six to nine months was heartbreaking.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: That must be a real acceptance difficulty.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that they do in hospital, which is what they have to do for rehabilitation, they've got the parallel bars that you see in the Olympics, but they're about this far off the floor.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So you hold on, and then you have to walk, but hold on.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's all about functionality.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: But what they put in front of you is a mirror.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because you have to see your legs moving because I couldn't feel my legs.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: They were almost working on their own.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll never forget the physio I had is a lovely lady called Elena.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And she's by my side and she's talking me through it.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking at my feet, and then all of a sudden I looked up big mistake.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, the mirror was probably four foot, but then all of a sudden I could see my eyes, and then I could see me.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then it becomes real.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because when you're going through that rehabilitation, it doesn't feel like it's you.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're just infunctional.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: But all of a sudden, I see me.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, tears, palpitations.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, and almost not that I went into a state of breaking down, but but it's like, oh my gosh, I didn't expect that.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: So dealing with that all through, then leaving hospital, getting back on the bike.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: And my dad, God love him, he was a savior.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I just said to him, just come and help me.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Help me get onto the bike.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: I can clip in with my cycling shoes, push me off, wait, I'll be back in two hours.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: And he used to take the paper to Abergavenny, true story.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And he down to the Hardwick pub, I'll never forget.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he'd sit there for two hours just reading the paper.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh bless him.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I would go and do my mileage, come back, and then he'd go, right, Yuricans.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: And he'd wait for me and help me back off the bite.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I knew if I got myself fit and healthy and strong again, I could maybe go back to work.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because that was the that was the process.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then my cycling coach at the time, Neil Smith, who was just even to this day, I can't thank him enough.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: He said to me one day in the velodrome, we were doing just some normal training.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Oh, we have um we have a race in about four or five months' time in the velodrome.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: He said, You're pretty strong.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Would you like to enter?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Heather, I didn't even think about it.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'd almost said yes and then thought, did I just say yes?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I knew.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a really difficult decision to make.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a competitive edge that people have.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: So say yes, then figure out how to do it, basically, you know.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then in May 2010, one year after my accident, I raced in the Newport Velodrome, and it was an international event.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the two races I raced in, I won both races, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is crazy, you know.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then a month later, we raised money for the Wales Air Ambulance who treated me on the day of my crash.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll never forget, putting these two races on Facebook, and the the paramedic who treated me, you know, he rang me and he said, Oh, would you like to cycle around Wales with us to raise money for the air ambulance?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, I'm in.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, it's 900 kilometres in a week.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Did you just say 900?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if anybody knows Wales, it's not 900 flat.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, it's not flat, you know.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I thought, Heather, do you know what?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta do this.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: This guy saved my life.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: The least I can do is give back just the support.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: So we did the ride.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: We raised about 100,000 dirum, you know, for the the air ambulance.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: And on the first day, I'll never forget meeting a guy who I'd never met before.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: And he's asking me questions, what's wrong with your legs?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm on crutches, explained, broke my back, lower leg paralysis, but I can cycle because my quads and my hip flexors work.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we had a conversation for about 20 minutes.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Can I um can I ask you one more question?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, of course.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now this was June 2010, two years before the Olympics.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Are you training for the Paralympics in London in two years' time?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: I said, No.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why the hell would I do that?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: He said, I think you should.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that was it.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: The light bulb moment, and I thought, oh my gosh, I've just gotta try.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: I've gotta try.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: If I get there, great.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: If I don't get there, so what?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: At least I tried.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: So we went home after the week.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Told my parents, I'll never forget my dad's face.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: He said, How was the week?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: I said I was amazing.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: I met all these famous people.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Have a guess what I'm gonna start doing next week.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: What's that, Mark?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm gonna start training for the Paralympics.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Para what?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: I said, you know, the Paralympics, the Olympics for disabled people like me.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: And he turns to my mother, Margaret.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Margaret have a word with your boy.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's lost it.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Look, I gotta try.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: If I get there, great.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: If I don't, at least I've tried.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, the only thing I ask is your support.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now you either get behind me, okay, or you get out of my way because I'm serious.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because this opportunity is only gonna happen once, you know, and God loving me supported me.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: And within a year I got selected by British Cycling.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's absolutely a crazy journey.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's I mean, to be an Olympic or to be um an Olympic athlete as an as a person who's fit and healthy is one thing, but to take on that challenge when you've got a disability, that's just something else.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think the um the you know, the journey of having that accident, going through that, you know, really serious mental health journey in hospital, which I've parked, I've put behind me, I've come through it.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't need to be that person anymore, you know.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then I guess being selected by the Olympic program, having always been into health and well-being, for me to go and do, you know, I don't know, 120 kilometers on the bike, I never felt myself saying no.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was always like, okay.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you then become coachable, then you start learning from the best coaches in the world, because I wasn't the expert.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I didn't know anything about physiology, biomechanics, diet, lifestyle.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Not to that level, you know, for sure.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then in February 2012, seven months before the Olympics, I raced in the world championships in Los Angeles.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And became a world champion in the three kilometer pursuit in the velodrome.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that for me then was the realization to answer your question: how good do you think you are, or how good do you think you need to be?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was just on this progression of improvement, you know, month after month after month.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: What was the main thing you learned from the Olympic um sort of minds coaches, I guess?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Gosh, how long have you got?
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Not long.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, to pick one thing, I would honestly say, is to give a hundred percent in whatever you do and accept the outcome.
• 22:46
  unknown: Okay.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you race against ten people and you finish last, that's okay.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: Genuinely.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: As long as you give a hundred percent.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because my coach for the Olympic team for British cycling, Tom Stanton, he understood how I ticked.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he knew everything I did was a hundred percent.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he always said to me, Well done, that was amazing.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: He never said, Oh, come on, yeah, you can do better than that.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because he knew it was 100% or go home, you know.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, and that was a big thanks to Professor Steve Peters, the sports psychologist, who instilled into all the Olympic athletes and Paralympic athletes to give 100% in what you do and then accept the outcome.
• 23:32
  unknown: Yeah.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Mark, unfortunately, we're out of time today.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: You obviously went on and won your gold medal, which we're just going to have a look at before.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I just want one of the things I think the listeners need to know, and we're very, very lucky, is that you take this into schools and you explain to children about resilience, about um achieving, about giving 100%, and you put that real Olympic mindset out there.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as as a population within Jubai, we're very, very lucky that you do that.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And as you know, um, we have one last question that we ask everyone.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you could go back in time with everything you know, your accident, pre-accident, with what's the one piece of advice you'd give your seven-year-old self?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now the obvious answer is don't go paragliding.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a very good one.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: I like that one.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of mums will be holding on to that one.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that wouldn't be the that wouldn't be the advice, actually.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, it wouldn't.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think the advice at seven, oh my gosh.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think the advice I would give myself is to listen.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, to listen to the experts earlier on in my life.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: I would have been cuted, don't go paradoxically.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because I got to about 14, 16, 18 years of age before I really started to listen.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, to those people around me.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: And to go into the Olympics, having everything, you know, everything I've gone through, I still see this medal now, and I still say to myself, I didn't win it with great luck.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was with great health.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that health comes under, you know, the pillars of, and we've spoken about this mental energy, you know, diet, lifestyle, sleep, hydration.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not just motivation, you know, it's not, it's not just discipline.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's all of the above.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Mark, thank you very much.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very lucky that I can call you one of my friends.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And every single time we meet, I leave inspired by you once again.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you very much for joining us today.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Your contacts are below, and I know you're rolling out this amazing program for children, mindset, achievement.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's starting in September in schools.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, please do have a look at that because it's absolutely amazing.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you ever so much.