story by: dave king

A clutch of British Paralympians with Rotary connections took part at the ​Paralympics in Paris in late August and early September.

Rotary GB&I Ambassador and top-ranked tennis player, Abbie Breakwell, lost in ​both the first round of the singles and doubles tournaments, but had the ​pleasure of playing alongside Team GB flagbearer, Lucy Shuker at Roland Garros.

After the Games, Abbie said: “My dream of playing ended sooner than I had ​hoped for, but when talking to a 3-time Paralympian, she said “don’t measure ​your success by whether you won a medal or not. Did you play well, enjoy your ​experience and live your dream? If you can answer ‘yes’, then it was a successful ​games.”

“I can 100% say yes to all!”

Abbie has had a strong relationship with Rotary for nearly a decade, joining Long ​Eaton Interact Club in Derbyshire back in 2014 and going on to become the club’s ​president. During Abbie's presidency she was awarded the Rotary Young Citizen ​WheelPower Sports Award 2018 for her volunteering and dedication to inclusion ​and sports.

Abbie hopes that her role as Rotary Ambassador will allow her to continue

empowering people to achieve their full potential.

She said: “The key issue I want to get my voice behind is equality – to make sure ​that everybody has the same opportunities no matter if they’re disabled, if ​they’re not disabled, their gender identity, religion or whatever it might be. I want ​to make sure everyone gets given the same opportunity.”

Fellow wheelchair tennis player, Alfie Hewett, has had an amazing year. He won ​the Wimbledon singles title this summer, and then captured gold in the doubles ​at the Paralympics with partner Gordon Reid. He described the victory as “the ​stuff of dreams”.

However, the 26-year-old later lost a thrilling singles final, beaten by Japan’s ​Tokito Oda on the red clay of Paris’s Roland Garros stadium.

“As a teenager living in Norwich, Alfie received funding from Rotary clubs in ​Norfolk and Suffolk to buy him a wheelchair. Diss & District Rotarian, Trevor ​Sayer, was heavily involved since helping to fund a sports wheelchair for him, as ​part of the ‘Wheelie Good Idea’ scheme, a legacy initiative set up after the 2012 ​London Olympics.

Wheelchair athlete Samantha Kinghorn won five medals at the Paralympics. She ​set a Paralympic Games record in winning the T53 100 metres final, won a silver ​medal in the Universal 4x100m relay, and claimed individual silvers over 400m, ​800m and 1500m.

“Five from five medals, I am so chuffed to come through,” said Samantha, who ​was the inaugural Rotary Young Citizen Wheelchair Sports Award winner in 2015 ​and is a former honorary member of e-Club of Southern Scotland.

The Borderer, left paralysed from the waist down by an accident at her family’s ​farm at Gordon in 2010, was also delighted to pick up her first gold medal at her ​third Paralympics, after competing in Brazil in 2016 and Japan in 2021, saying: “I ​never thought I’d be Paralympic champion, so to be here as the fastest ever is ​just mental.

“I’m very lucky to come from an incredible place in the Borders, they supported ​me and fundraised for me and now I’m Paralympic champion.

Kare Adenegan, a Rotary Young Citizen Wheelchair Sports Award winner in ​2017, won silver medals in the T34 100m and 800m. The Coventry athlete, who ​claimed her seventh Paralympic medal having also completed at the Tokyo ​Games in 2021, said afterwards: “I am feeling so grateful and so blessed.

“The atmosphere was incredible, it was so loud, on the start line I couldn’t hear ​anything, after Tokyo it’s great to know my family and friends are in the crowd as ​well.”