Sam Ruddock

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Sam Ruddock
Sam Ruddock with coach Jim Edwards during the F35 Shot Put Final at Swansea 2014.jpg
Ruddock with Jim Edwards during the F35 Shot Put Final at the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships.
Personal information
Full nameSamuel Ruddock
Nickname(s)Sam
NationalityBritish
Born (1990-02-19) 19 February 1990 (age 33)
Rugby, Warwickshire
Education International Relations (Bachelor of Arts)
Alma mater Loughborough University
Website www.samruddock.co.uk
Sport
CountryFlag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
Sport Cycling
Disability Cerebral palsy
Disability class C1
Event(s) Track time trial
ClubLoughborough Students CC
Achievements and titles
World finals 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships
Regional finals 2016 IPC Athletics European Championships 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships
Paralympic finals Rio 2016 London 2012
Highest world rankingUCI World Rankings C1 – 4th (2020–2021)
Personal best(s)1:16.671 (Kilometre TT)
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
European Championships
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2016 Grosseto Shot put – F35
Track World Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2022 Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines 1 km time trial C1
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2023 Glasgow 1 km time trial C1
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg2023 GlasgowOmnium C1

Samuel Ruddock (born 19 February 1990) is a Paralympic track cycling athlete who represented Great Britain in the F35 classification in the 100 metres and shot put events, for athletes with cerebral palsy. He is the British Record holder for the F35 Shot Put and the C1 Kilometere Time Trial, specialising in the track sprint events, preparing for his third Paralympic Games at Tokyo 2020. [1]

Contents

Early years

Ruddock was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a neuro-muscular condition caused by his premature birth. He attended Bishop Wulstan School to study at GCSE level, taking a profound interest in languages, history and politics. He found it difficult to play the predominant playground sport of football, due to a severe lack of lower body coordination. He however found great pleasure in basketball and cites films like Space Jam and Coach Carter as major influences on his extra-curricular ambitions in physical education. After completing his GCSEs, he took scholarship exams in 2006 and was subsequently offered a full academic scholarship to attend Rugby School to study English, History and Economics, as a day pupil in Town House.

Loughborough University

After completing his A-Levels, Ruddock chose to study International Relations at Loughborough University. He became immersed in the ethos of Loughborough campus life and took up American football alongside his studies, playing linebacker for the Loughborough Aces, as the only player with a physical disability in the British University League. In late 2011, his final year of study, he was approached by an athletics coach during one of the football team's quarterly combine testing sessions. The coach, Joe McDonnell, spotted Ruddock's impairment and offered to coach him in disability sprinting, singling him out for his speed and power over short distances.

[2] Ruddock was quickly brought through the talent identification ranks by British Athletics and within months of training was awarded his senior international debut for the Great Britain Paralympic Athletics team that would compete in London, having attended his first official competition event in April 2012. [3]

Post-University, Athletics and Cycling

Having graduated with First Class Honours, Ruddock is currently training for the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo [4] and is employed as an Athlete Mentor for the Youth Sport Trust, [5] working with secondary schools to encourage pupils, to use the values and lessons learnt through sport, to better their academic performance.

During the earlier part of the 2013–2014 athletics season, Sam made the transition to the field events to further his medal prospects at the 2016 Summer Paralympics and was selected to represent Great Britain in the shot put for the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships in Swansea. After producing a new lifetime best at the 2015 World Championships and a silver medal performance at the following 2016 Europeans, Sam was selected to compete at the Rio 2016 Games, finishing 6th in the final. He is currently in training for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in track cycling, having joined the British Cycling Foundation Programme in 2019.

He is a big fan of the National Football League and WWE.

Related Research Articles

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The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, canonically the 1984 Summer Paralympics, were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. There were two separate competitions: one in Stoke Mandeville, England, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries and the other at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, United States for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and les autres [the others]. Stoke Mandeville had been the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games from 1948 onwards, seen as the precursors to the Paralympic Games, as the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome in 1960 are now recognised as the first Summer Paralympics. As with the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Soviet Union and other communist countries except China, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia boycotted the Paralympic Games. The Soviet Union did not participate in the Paralympics at the time, arguing that they have no disabled people in the country. The USSR made its Paralympic debut in 1988, during Perestroika.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Summer Paralympic Games</span> International multi-sport event for disabled athletes

The Summer Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, organized by the International Paralympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that the Olympic Games started in 1904.

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T38 and CP8 are disability sport classification for disability athletics intended for people with cerebral palsy. It includes people who have coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis. Runners in this class may appear to have a slight limp when they are running but otherwise have a stride similar to able-bodied runners. Events for this class include 100 meters, 400 meters, 1,500 meters, and the long jump.

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Para-cycling classification is the process of classifying participants in para-cycling covering four functional disability types. The classification system includes classes for handcycles for people who have lower limb mobility issues. The sport is governed by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

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References

  1. Paralympics GB
  2. DKH Legacy Trust - Sam Ruddock Archived 2014-04-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Loughborough University News
  4. Sky TV Game Changers Interview
  5. Sky Sports Athlete Mentor