Ellen Buttrick - Tokyo Paralympics GB VI Rowing Gold Medallist Follow Up Interview

Here on RNIB Connect Radio we are catching up with some of the Paralympics GB visually impaired medal winners from the Tokyo Paralympic Games to find out how they got into sport, what winning that medal was like out in Tokyo and their advice for other visually impaired people on how to get into sport at any level.

Our Toby Davey caught up with Ellen Buttrick, who along with the rest of the Paralympics GB Mixed Coxed 4 rowing team won a Gold medal out on the water in Tokyo.

Ellen began by explaining to Toby that she was a very sporty child who wanted to try any sport but could not find anything she was really good at until she found rowing at the age of 17 when she signed up to join Leeds Rowing Team a week before the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Ellen was inspired by some of the London 2012 female rowers including Helen Glover who had only got into rowing 3 years prior to London, but it was the Paralympics that really inspired Ellen even more and she thought - wow these people are amazing imagine if I had a disability and I would love to do that and make the most of things - and two years later Ellen got that chance herself!

Ellen then tells Toby about being diagnosed with Stargardt’s in 2014, making it into the Paralympic rowing team, training up to and through the pandemic getting to Tokyo, competing out on the water and of course that final Gold medal race finishing 11 seconds ahead of second place USA. 

Ellen ends by sharing her advice to other visually impaired people on how to get into sport, what they might get out of sport and giving things a go even if you don’t think you might be good at a sport as you will meet friends that you may never normally meet in life. 

Congratulations again Ellen to you and the rest of the Paralympics GB Mixed Coxed 4 rowing team from everyone at the RNIB on that Paralympic Rowing Gold medal.


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