 | This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(May 2021) |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | British |
| Born | 2 June 1981 Chatham, Kent, England |
| Website | SteveBrownGB.com |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Wheelchair rugby |
| Team |  Great Britain |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Paralympic finals | Captain 2012 |
| Updated on 2 October 2012 | |
Stephen Brown (born 2 June 1981) is an English television presenter, public speaker, athlete mentor and a former member and captain of the Great Britain wheelchair rugby squad. [1] [2]
Brown was raised in a family that supported Crystal Palace Football Club and was inspired by them. He attended Borden Grammar School in Sittingbourne, Kent and represented the school in football, cricket and cross-country. [3]
Alongside his sport, Brown's greatest pleasure was in exploring the countryside around his home. His interest was so great that he wanted to be a wildlife presenter. "If I wasn't playing football with my mates I was catching tadpoles and slowworms, and I loved programmes like The Really Wild Show and everything with David Attenborough. So that’s what I wanted to be. But the careers master just told me I wouldn't be able to do that and to forget it." [4]
At the age of 23, Brown fell from a first-floor balcony while working in Europe as an area manager for a holiday company. He recounts: "I tripped and fell from a first-floor balcony. I was looking up when I landed, so when my body stopped my head went back over my shoulders, like a severe whiplash. It snapped my neck, dislocating the C7 [one of the cervical vertebra, below the skull] and trapping my spinal cord." [5] Soon after arriving at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Brown was taken to watch wheelchair rugby. [5]
 | This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(April 2022) |
Brown's potential in wheelchair rugby was noted by the head coach of the Great Britain squad. In 2006, he gained a place in that squad and in 2007 was a member of the team which won gold in the IWRF European Championships.
Brown was not selected for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games however he led the Olympic and Paralympic Parade of the Heroes through London on the team's return. In 2010, Brown broke his sternum while playing in Germany. In 2011, Brown became captain of team, leading them to a fifth place finish in the London 2012 Paralympics. He has since commented that “Being captain at your home Games is the biggest thing that you could do. I was incredibly proud.” [4]
After the London 2012 Paralympics, Brown retired from playing international wheelchair rugby however remains involved in the sport as a player and the head coach for Canterbury Hellfire Wheelchair Rugby Club. He is one of the most recognised faces in the sport, having featured in national newspapers and television broadcasts including Channel 4's Inside Incredible Athletes. [6]
Since 2012, Brown has worked in television broadcasting as a presenter and reporter. He has presented on the BBC's Truth or Scare , The One Show and Springwatch, [7] and has been a roving reporter for Game Changers on Sky Sports. [8]
From 12 to 16 October 2015, was a presenter for the ITV live broadcast of the BT World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge at the Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. He co-presented with Martin Bayfield, the former England and British & Irish Lions rugby union player. [9]
Brown worked as a reporter and commentator for the BBC's coverage of the Invictus Games in 2014, 2016 and 2017. He has described this work as "the privilege of watching people bond and go from being individuals with things in common to being part of a team." [10] In September 2016, he was a member of the Channel 4 team that covered the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. [11]
In April 2017, Brown joined the BBC's Countryfile team. For him this was the realisation of a long-held ambition and a refutation of the careers advisor at school who told him that he would never be a wildlife presenter. He remarked that "[i]t is worth every flat tyre, every muddy set of hands, every wet lap… I want to be judged on my performance. I'm hoping people will see it's about ability, not disability.” [4] He has presented Escape to the Perfect Town, a spin-off to Escape to the Country . [12]
Brown is a Sky Sports Scholar [13] and a Sky Sports 'Living for Sport' mentor. [14] He is a public speaker and has spoken for organisations including Allianz and Sky. His charitable work includes being an ambassador for Wooden Spoon, a patron of Panathlon and a trustee for the Swale Youth Development Fund. [15]
Jonathan David Edwards, is a British former triple jumper. He is an Olympic, double World, European, European indoor and Commonwealth champion, and has held the world record in the event since 1995. Edwards is widely regarded as the greatest male triple-jumper in history.
Kirsty Jane Gallacher is a British television presenter and model. She began her career at Sky Sports News in 1998 and hosted Kirsty's Home Videos, RI:SE and Simply the Best before returning to Sky Sports News from 2011–2018. From June 2021 until December 2021, Gallacher co-presented The Great British Breakfast on the news channel GB News.
Stephen Rider is an English sports presenter. Between 1985 and 2005, Rider presented a variety of BBC Sport programmes including Sportsnight, Rally Report and the flagship show Grandstand. He was the anchorman of ITV's football coverage between 2006 and April 2010, and anchored ITV's Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008. He was the lead presenter for ITV's coverage of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. He has been ITV's main presenter for the British Touring Car Championship since 2009.
John Ballantyne Inverdale is an English broadcaster who works for both the BBC and ITV.
ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.
Lee McKenzie is a journalist and presenter who is a reporter and deputy presenter for Channel 4's F1 coverage and also the main presenter of the W Series and Channel 4 Rugby. McKenzie also works on a variety of sports on the BBC and Channel 4 including tennis, rugby and equestrian, as well as the Olympics and Paralympic Games. McKenzie has also worked as a presenter for the BBC's F1 coverage, Sky Sports and Sky Sports News.
Ross Dyer is a British sports and entertainment broadcaster. He is currently a football commentator and presenter for ESPN and Fox Sports in the United States.
Great Britain competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Great Britain sent a delegation of around 400, of which 212 were athletes, to compete in eighteen sports at the Games. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom; athletes from Northern Ireland, who may elect to hold Irish citizenship under the pre-1999 article 2 of the Irish constitution, are able to be selected to represent either Great Britain or Ireland at the Paralympics. Additionally some British overseas territories compete separately from Britain in Paralympic competition.
Helen Elizabeth Skelton is an English television presenter and actress. She co-presented the BBC children's programme Blue Peter from 2008 until 2013, and since 2014 has been a presenter on Countryfile. She co-presented two series of the BBC One programme Holiday Hit Squad alongside Angela Rippon and Joe Crowley. She also presented the daytime series The Instant Gardener that ran for two series.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed at the 2010 Winter Paralympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The team was known by it shortened name of Great Britain, for identification purposes.
The Great Britain national wheelchair rugby team represents Great Britain in international wheelchair rugby. Great Britain is the most successful team in European competition, winning six gold medals at the European Championship and a gold at the 2020 Paralympic Games. Since a national poll as part of The Last Leg, the team have been known as The Sweet Chariots.'
Great Britain competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012 as the host nation. A total of 288 athletes were selected to compete along with 13 other team members such as sighted guides. The country finished third in the medals table, behind China and Russia, winning 120 medals in total; 34 gold, 43 silver and 43 bronze. Multiple medallists included cyclist Sarah Storey and wheelchair athlete David Weir, who won four gold medals each, and swimmer Stephanie Millward who won a total of five medals. Storey also became the British athlete with the most overall medals, 22, and equal-most gold medals, 11, in Paralympic Games history.
Ryan Scott, is a Paralympic wheelchair rugby competitor from Australia. In four Paralympics, Scott has won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Hannah Lucy Cockroft is a British wheelchair racer specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification and TV presenter.
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.
Kylie Grimes is a British para-athlete. She is one of two women, along with Bieke Ketelbuters, who competed on wheelchair rugby teams at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. She was part of the GB team to win their first ever gold in the event, at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, beating the USA 54–49. In doing so she became the first woman of any country to win a Paralympic gold medal in the sport.
Bulbul Hussain is a British wheelchair rugby player who plays for Kent Crusaders and the Great Britain Paralympic team. He plays mostly in a defensive role.
Samantha "Sammi" May Kinghorn is a British World Champion wheelchair racer and TV presenter.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed, under the name Great Britain, at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places for which the team qualified were for six athletes in sailing events.
John-James Chalmers is a Scottish television presenter and Invictus Games medallist. He was injured in a bomb blast in Afghanistan in 2011, while serving as a Royal Marine.