Tara Flood (born 1966) is a retired British Paralympic swimmer who competed in three Paralympic Games and winning seven medals. She was born without her forearms. She is now a disability rights activist. [1] [2]
Tara Flood (born 1966) is a retired British Paralympic swimmer who competed in three Paralympic Games and winning seven medals. She was born without her forearms. She is now a disability rights activist. [1] [2]
Flood was born in Preston, Lancashire and was discriminated by her grandmother who often insulted her mother by saying "look what Sally's given birth to" which emotionally affected both Tara and her mother. Her mother had a nervous breakdown when Tara was two days old and was heavily sedated. [3] [4]
She attended a residential special school at sixteen months to her sixteenth birthday in East Sussex. [5]
Flood's first experiences of being in the pool was when she was two or three years old, she was thrown into the pool and described "those of us that literally bobbed to the surface were just sort of like, oh great, let's really sort of get on, and those that didn't were just sort of pulled out". [6]
Flood began swimming aged five at her residential school where she took swimming lessons with other children who had similar disabilities to her. She began swimming competitively aged twelve then attended the 1984 Summer Paralympics in New York City aged thirteen. [7]
Flood works in London at as a disability activist and worked in various disability rights charities in the city. She was also involved with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and is campaigning to get the Convention fully implemented. [8] [9]
Emily Beecroft is an Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She won a silver and bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
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Sara Andrés Barrio is a Spanish Paralympic athlete who competes in sprinting and long jump events at international track and field competitions, she competed at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics. She is a double World bronze medalist and a European silver medalist in sprinting. Andrés lost both of her lower legs in a car accident in 2011, she was an amateur karateka and tennis player before her accident.
Linda Mastandrea is a civil rights and disability attorney, author and former Paralympic athlete. She was a Paralympic and World champion in wheelchair racing.
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