Anne Wafula Strike

Last updated

Anne Wafula Strike MBE (born 8 May 1969) is a Harlow-based British Paralympic wheelchair racer.

Wafula Strike was born in Mihuu in Bungoma, Kenya, and contracted polio at the age of two, resulting in a later Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital diagnosis of below T7 paralysis. [1] Arriving in the UK in April 2000, she was introduced to wheelchair racing in 2002 and in 2004 became the first Kenyan wheelchair racer to represent her country, competing in the T53 [2] 400m finals at the Paralympics in Athens. Following a successful application for British citizenship in 2006, she became a member of Team GB and, after reclassification, now competes in the T54 racing category as a British athlete.

A past winner of the BBC's 'My Story' competition, [3] her autobiography In my Dreams I Dance was published by HarperCollins in 2010. [4]

In 2013, Wafula Strike was featured in Paul Stenning's Success - By Those Who've Made It, alongside many celebrities and notable people. Hers was the last personal biography featured in the book, which Stenning explained was because her story was the most powerful and the greatest example of success. [5] [6]

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to disability sport and charity. [7]

In January 2017, while on a CrossCountry train, she was unable to reach a toilet on time due to sitting in a wheelchair. She lost control of her bladder and urinated into her clothing. In the aftermath, she criticised CrossCountry for failing to provide a working disabled accessible toilet on the train. [8]

Anne has one child - named Timothy - with her husband Norman. [9]

In 2020 Wafula was named as a special envoy to the Commonwealth by Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chantal Petitclerc</span> Canadian politician and paralympic athlete

Chantal Petitclerc is a Canadian wheelchair racer and a Senator from Quebec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Sauvage</span> Australian paralympic athlete

Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Easterbrook</span> American actress

Leslie Easterbrook is an American actress and producer. She played Sgt./Lt./Capt. Debbie Callahan in the Police Academy films and Rhonda Lee on the television series Laverne & Shirley.

Stefanie McLeod Reid is a track and field paralympian who competes for Canada and Great Britain, competing mainly in category T44 long jump and sprint events. A multiple medal winner at European and world level, she won a bronze medal in the 200m at the 2008 Summer Paralympics and silver in the long jump at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Christiansen</span> British Paralympic equestrian

Sophie Margaret Christiansen, CBE is an English equestrian who has competed in four successive Paralympic Games. In 2012 and 2016 she gained three gold medals at the Paralympics. In 2008 she won two gold medals and a silver at the Beijing Paralympics whilst studying for a master's degree in mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London. She works as a software developer at investment bank, Goldman Sachs and as a disability campaigner. She qualified for the postponed 2020 Summer Paralympics but had to drop out due to her horse not being fit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniela Di Toro</span> Australian wheelchair tennis player

Lisa Daniela "Danni" Di Toro is an Australian wheelchair tennis and para table tennis player. Di Toro was the 2010 French Open doubles champion and has also been the Masters double champion. In singles, Di Toro is the former world number one and two time masters finalist. In 2015, she moved to para-table tennis and represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, where she was team captain with Kurt Fearnley. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, her seventh Paralympics, she was the team captain and Opening Ceremony flag bearer with Ryley Batt. She has been selected to compete at her eight Paralympics in Paris.

Cheryl Ann "Cherrie" Dallas-Smith, MBE is an Australian former wheelchair athlete, swimmer and table tennis player who represented her country at two Paralympic Games and two Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in the 1960s and 1970s. Born in Darwin, She was on holiday in Melbourne when she was paralysed by polio at the age of five. Her family moved to Brisbane and she became involved in competitive sport through the Queensland Sports and Social Club for the Disabled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannah Cockroft</span> British wheelchair racer

Hannah Lucy Cockroft is a British wheelchair racer specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification and TV presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jade Jones-Hall</span> English wheelchair racer (b.1996)

Jade Jones-Hall, known previously as Jade Jones, is an English wheelchair racer, competing in T54 events, and a paratriathlete competing in handbike-to-wheelchair classifications. Jones competed in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the 400m, 800m and 1500m. In 2018, she won the gold medal in Paratriathlon at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Josie Rachel Pearson MBE is a Paralympian wheelchair rugby player and athlete from England. Pearson represented Great Britain in the 2008 Summer Paralympics, becoming the first women to compete in wheelchair rugby for her country at the Paralympics. After competing as a sprint athlete, Pearson switched to throwing events and qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympics in both discus and club throw in the F51 class, eventually taking the gold in discus with a world record distance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordanne Whiley</span> British wheelchair tennis player

Jordanne Joyce Whiley MBE is a British retired wheelchair tennis player. Aged 14, she became Britain's youngest ever national women's singles champion in wheelchair tennis. She has osteogenesis imperfecta as does her father, Keith, who was also a Paralympian and won a bronze medal in 1984 in New York. As well as the 2015 US Open in wheelchair singles, Whiley has won 9 Grand Slam doubles titles, and she & Japanese Yui Kamiji are the fourth team in women's wheelchair doubles to complete the Calendar Year Grand Slam. Whiley was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2015 Queens Birthday Honours list for services to wheelchair tennis.

Mike Kenny, MBE is a retired British swimmer. He won 16 gold medals and two silvers over four Paralympic Games, making him the second most successful British Paralympian of all time. He twice retained his gold medals in three swimming events, breaking numerous world records in the process.

Dedeline Mibamba Kimbata is Congolese Paralympic track and field athlete.

Meggan Dawson-Farrell is a Scottish wheelchair racer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sammi Kinghorn</span> Scottish wheelchair racer

Samantha "Sammi" May Kinghorn is a Scottish World Champion wheelchair racer and TV presenter.

Alice Tai, is a British paralympic swimmer. Tai competes in the SB8, SM8 and S8. She has represented Great Britain at European and World Championships and at the Commonwealth and Paralympic Games, gold medals at all levels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Bailey (table tennis)</span> British para table tennis player

Susan Fiona Bailey, is a British para table tennis player and primary school teacher. She has competed in six Paralympic Games and at the Commonwealth Games.

Lauren Rachel Catherine Rowles, is a British parasport rower and former wheelchair athlete. She won gold with Laurence Whiteley in the trunk-arms mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.The pair repeated their achievement in Tokyo at the 2021 Summer Paralympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Stenning</span> English author (born 1976)

Paul David Stenning is an English author and ghostwriter. He has written twenty-nine books, of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and biography. The best-known of his books is The Robert Pattinson Album, a biography of Robert Pattinson, first published in 2009 and appearing in seven languages since then.

Wafula is a male forename and a surname of African origin for abaluhya tribe in kenya which means a boy born during rainy season. The opposite is Nafula for a lady who also born during rainy season

References

  1. ↑ "apparelyzed.com". www.apparelyzed.com. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). ipc-athletics.paralympic.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ "BBC – My Story".
  4. ↑ Wafula Strike, Anne (2010). In My Dreams I Dance, HarperCollins, London. ISBN   978-0-00-735428-3.
  5. ↑ "Live Preston & Fylde magazine", March 2014
  6. ↑ Stenning, Paul (24 November 2013). Success - By Those Who've Made It. Pg. 203-207. In Flight Books. ISBN   978-1628475869.
  7. ↑ "No. 60895". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2014. p. b24.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Diane (2 January 2017). "Paralympian forced to wet herself on train without accessible toilet". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  9. ↑ Stenning, Paul (24 November 2013). Success - By Those Who've Made It. Pg. 207. In Flight Books. ISBN   978-1628475869.
  10. ↑ "Commonwealth Secretary-General announces four special envoys and champions".


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.