Sarah Storey

Sarah Bailey was born in Manchester with her left arm entangled in the umbilical cord, which left her without a working left hand. She was bullied at school about it and later described being told bluntly what she would not be able to do. Swimming was her answer. She trained before school in the mornings and by 14 was in the British team for the Barcelona Paralympics in 1992, where she came home with two golds, three silvers and a bronze.

She swam at four Paralympics, but by the mid-2000s a series of ear infections meant she could not get in the water for weeks at a time. Rather than lose fitness she borrowed a bike, and found she was quick on it. In 2005 she switched sports entirely, an unusual and risky decision for a swimmer with a decade of medals behind her.

It worked better than anyone predicted. She won two cycling golds in Beijing in 2008, four in London in 2012 and three in Rio in 2016, competing against and often beating non-disabled riders in domestic events. After the birth of her two children she came back each time, and in Tokyo in 2021 she passed the record for the most Paralympic golds by a British athlete.

She was still winning in Paris in 2024, in her mid-forties, at her ninth Games. She was made a Dame in 2013 and has been active in campaigning for safer cycling infrastructure.