 Kinghorn in 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Samantha May Kinghorn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 6 January 1996 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Earlston High School [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wheelchair racing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability | Paralysed below the waist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | T53 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Red Star | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Ian Mirfin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Samantha "Sammi" May Kinghorn MBE (born 6 January 1996) is a British World Champion wheelchair racer [2] and TV presenter. At the 2024 paralympics she won a gold medal.
In December 2010 Kinghorn was crushed by snow and ice which fell from the roof at the family farm breaking her back. She had emergency surgery and spent five months in hospital. [3] [4] The injury to her spine left her paralysed from the waist down. [5] Since then she uses a wheelchair for mobility. While in the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southern General Hospital her physiotherapist took her to Stoke Mandeville Stadium to take part in the WheelPower Inter Spinal Games where she was able to try out a variety of wheelchair sports, leading to her taking up wheelchair racing. [1] She said:
I thought I’d be in a bed forever. So, to then get into a wheelchair was amazing. I know it sounds strange, but I was so happy. “Then to find I could actually compete in sport in my wheelchair has just been incredible. Sport has helped me hugely, helped me to really accept it . [4]
Kinghorn is part of the Glasgow disability sports club Red Star, [5] where she is coached by Ian Mirfin MBE (new years honours list 2015/16). She is classified as a T53 para-athlete. [2] Sammi is the fastest ever female British wheelchair racer regardless of classification over 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m.
Kinghorn's first race was the 2012 London Mini Marathon, where she came second. [4] Since then she has won many medals in domestic competitions [2] and set Scottish records in the 100m and 200m. [4] In 2013 Kinghorn was one of the first competitors to be named in the Scotland squad for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. She was chosen to be an athlete ambassador for Harper Macleod and a short promotional film [6] was made of her preparations for the Games. [7] In the buildup to the Games, Kinghorn was named Glasgow's Disabled Athlete of the Year. At the Commonwealth Games she took part in the T54 1500m, and after qualifying third in her heat, she placed fifth in the final. [8]
Kinghorn represented Team GB at the 2014 IPC European Championships in Swansea where she won Britain's first gold medal in the T53 Women's 400m [9] and went on to win further golds over 100m and 800m. [10]
Kinghorn competed for Team GB at 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. She placed 5th and 6th in the 100m and 400m T53 events but was disqualified in the 400m [11]
Kinghorn achieved a sprint double at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in the winning the 100m and 200m. [12]
In 2017 she will debut over the marathon distance in an attempt to qualify for the 2018 Commonwealth Games [13]
At the end of June 2021 she was in Manchester for the British Athletic Championships where she was second in a mixed classification 400m wheelchair race behind Hannah Cockroft and with Mel Woods third. [14]
Kinghorn was among nine Scottish athletes who were chosen to compete at the postponed 2020 Summer Paralympics. Most were announced in July 2021. The others were Mel Woods, Libby Clegg, Jo Butterfield, Maria Lyle, Owen Miller, Derek Rae, Stef Reid and Ben Rowlings. [15]
Kinghorn was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to disability sport. [16]
Kinghorn represented Team GB at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, where she won a gold medal in the T53 Women's 100m, and silver in the 400m, 800m, and 1,500m. [17]
In 2023, Kinghorn began her career in television by appearing as a presenter on BBC's Countryfile . [18] [19] She had previously featured in an episode of BBC's The One Show . [20]
Michelle Stilwell is a Canadian athlete and politician. She represented Canada at four Summer Paralympic Games, as well as the 2015 Parapan American Games. She competed in wheelchair basketball before becoming a wheelchair racer, and is the only female Paralympic athlete to win gold medals in two separate summer sport events.
Tatyana McFadden is an American Paralympic athlete competing in the category T54. McFadden has won twenty Paralympic medals in multiple Summer Paralympic Games and the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability in 2015.
Madison de Rozario, is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair racer who specialises in middle and long-distance events. She competed at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio, 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Paralympics, winning two gold, four silver and two bronze medals. She has also won ten medals at the World Para Athletics Championships and four gold at the Commonwealth Games. De Rozario holds the world record in the Women's 800m T53 and formerly in the Women's 1500m T53/54.
Angela Ballard is an Australian Paralympic athlete who competes in T53 wheelchair sprint events. She became a paraplegic at age 7 due to a car accident.
Hannah Lucy Cockroft is a British wheelchair racer specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification and TV presenter.
Brent Lakatos is a Canadian wheelchair racer in the T53 classification. Lakatos has represented Canada at four Summer Paralympics, and at the 2012 Games he won three silver medals in the sprint and mid-distance events. In 2013 Lakatos reached the pinnacle of his sport when he collected four gold medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships and became world champion at his classification in the 100m, 200m and 400m events.
Meggan Dawson-Farrell is a Scottish wheelchair racer.
Maria Lyle is a retired para-athlete from Scotland who competed mainly in T35 sprint events. At the age of 14 she set a world record in the 200m sprint, a record she has broken on several occasions. In 2014, she qualified for the IPC Athletics European Championships in Swansea and won gold in both the 100m and 200m T35.
Zac Shaw is a British Paralympic visually impaired sprinter who competes in the T12 classification. At the age of nine he became afflicted with stargardt disease. He made his first Great Britain squad for the IPC Athletics World Championships in 2015 . Shaw made the Great Britain squad for the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris after just missing out on both the 2016 Summer Paralympics and 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Natalia Kocherova is Russian Paralympic wheelchair and cross-country skier from Omsk.
Karé Adenegan is a British wheelchair athlete specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification. She was classified as a disability athlete in 2013.
Ahmad Almutairi is a Kuwaiti para-sport athlete who competes as a T33 classification track and field athlete and as a wheelchair basketball player, both at national level. Despite the fact that Almutairi held the Paralympic world record for his classification in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m events, major world titles eluded him due to the fact that his classification was under-represented and he was forced to compete against less severely disabled athletes in the T44 class. He eventually won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Hamide Kurt Doğangün is a Turkish Paralympian athlete competing in the T53 disability class sprint events of 100m and 400m, T52/T53 class middle-distance event of 800m as well as T53/T54 class 4 × 400 m relay event.
Zübeyde Süpürgeci is a Turkish Paralympian athlete competing in the T54 disability class events of 100m, 400m and 800m as well as T53/T54 class 4 × 400 m relay event.
Jayanti Behera is a track & field paralympic athlete who represents India in the Women's 200m, 400m, and 800m event. She is a world youth champion in the TR 400m event and she has also won the gold medal at the recent National Para Athletics Championships 2018 in Panchkula. She is supported by the GoSports Foundation through the Para Champions Programme.
Catherine Debrunner is a Swiss athlete and teacher. She has competed for Team Switzerland at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships where she won a gold and a silver medal. She won the 2024 London Marathon and set new course records at the 2023 Berlin Marathon, the 2023 Chicago Marathon, and the 2023 New York City Marathon. She won five gold medals at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris including one for the T54 Marathon.
Melanie Woods is a Scottish teacher and wheelchair racer who competed at the postponed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo. She was fifth in the 800m (T54).
Ali Smith is a British Paralympic athlete who competes in 100 metres, 400 metres, and 4x100m Universal Relay events. At the age of 25, Ali was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after noticing she was having abnormal symptoms. In 2017 she picked up para-athletics after loving track and field as a child before her disability.
Fabienne André is a British wheelchair racer. In 2021, she won gold in the 100 m and 800 m at the 2021 World Para Athletics European Championships.
