Second rival’s shock claims over Tanni

A SECOND Paralympic athlete has told MPs she was unfairly denied the chance to compete when she was a direct rival to Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. Tracy Lewis has followed Anne Wafula Strike in giving written evidence to a parliamentary select committee in which she claims she was the victim of ‘unethical practice’. Wafula Strike alleged she was robbed of the best years of her career when she was moved out of Grey-Thompson’s T53 wheelchair racing after a 2006 complaint by the 11-time Paralympic champion’s husband, Ian Thompson. Now Paralympic relay silver medallist Lewis has come forward to tell Sportsmail she was ‘spat out’ by athletics. Lewis, who was born with spina bifida, has expressed her concerns to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee ahead of today’s second parliamentary hearing on classification in disabled sport. Ahead of the 1996 Paralympic Games, Lewis was ranked among the fastest in the world in the T53 100m. But Lewis was not chosen for the Games after a selectors’ meeting attended by Grey-Thompson as the representative for the British Wheelchair Racing Association and their athletes. Lewis has not named GreyThompson in her statement to the DCMS, only referring to her as ‘a direct rival’. But she was so disgusted she quit the sport and remains deeply upset that she was denied her shot at individual Paralympic glory. In her statement she says the disappointment led her to suffer ‘anxiety and panic attacks, including depression’. Lewis, now 53, told Sportsmail: ‘I was told she (Grey-Thompson) had offered to step away but that meant I probably didn’t have anyone fighting for me. I never beat her but I was obviously a big threat to her. I was in sport for 15 years and then I was just spat out.’

Sportsmail approached Grey-Thompson for comment but received no response.