We met on a few different occasions, the first being in Manchester at the launch of the Paralympic World Cup, this was an introduction to the programme and the other 80 or so athletes on it.
Then in August we traveled down to Bath University which was the holding camp for many of the Paralympic athletes. Whilst there we were kitted out in Paralympic Inspiration Programme kit, had lectures on Media, Doping, nutrition, One Team Mentality and generally went through the stages of preparation that the athletes would go through!
We also had a night at the Bath Paralympic Torch ceremony in which we were VIP guests! :)
We were in Bath for a weekend and then myself and my fellow judo colleague Chris (along with our nutter of a coach Ian) headed off to Kendal in Cumbria for an England Training week! Gluttons for punishment or what! It was an intense few days, hard work and physically demanding, but we didn't have time to catch breath before heading straight down to London for the remainder of the programme!
London was awesome! We went to the Paralympic Village (The food court was huge!), Paralympic House and spend time at various Paralympic Sports. Naturally I loved the judo - we got to see Sam Ingram getting through to the finals which was amazing as we were matside along with the rest of the Paralympic judo team! It really brought home the 'One Team Mentality' that we had been lectured about.
I have never been photographed so much as I was this week, loads of people stopped us and wanted photos with us and autographs! Such a surreal experience!
Last week was the culmination of the programme down in Loughborough University and it was good to catch up with my fellow athletes again! We are hoping to carry on the programme but of course this will be reliant on funding!
All the athletes on the programme (including yours truly) have the goal of getting to either Socchi in 2014 or Rio in 2016 so watch this space!!!!
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