On the 8th of January 1993, Sophie Pascoe was born. Little did she know that she would be a world champion. She is a gold medalist Paralympian, swimmer! Her fatal injury made her famous.
She was only two years old when she lost her leg. Her dad mowed over her leg with the lawn mower, and she got rushed to hospital immediately, by her neighbour and her dad. She spent six hours on the operating table and was fighting for her life, by then they only saved her right leg with only scares. In total Sophie spent 18 days at the hospital.
An important person in Sophie’s life was her grand dad (Gragra). When she was only 9 years old and the start of Sophies swimming career, her granddad was at the final stages of his battle of lung cancer. She made a promise with her granddad that she would go to the olympics and win a gold medal. Little did she know in the following years to come that's what will happen. She keep this promise ever since.
She became a professional swimmer by, taking swimming lessons like every normal kid.At the start she couldn’t even keep up with the other kids, Sophie’s mum put her in swimming lessons because she wanted to live a normal life. The same year the school swimming sports were held, she won her first race and realised that she could beat normal people. This is when she realised that she had a talent in swimming.
At the age of nine she competed at the Crippled Children's Society (CCS). She swam against a current paralympian and won the race, even though their disabilities were very different. She caught the eye of Graham Condon and Roly Crichton (Sophie’s currant coach). They offered Sophie to train with the QEII Swim Club - This is where Sophie’s swimming career started.
One of Sophie’s best strokes/world records are 400m IM and 100m Butterfly. Sophie won 9 gold medals, 6 silver medals out of all Paralympics. She won 2 gold medals at the commonwealth games. IPC World Championships 8 golds, 4 silvers and 4 bronze medals.
Sophie Pascoe is an inspiring leader. Even though she had a tragic accident when she was 2 years old, she showed everyone that nothing can get in your way even though you might be scarred for life.
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