I want to close the gap with the Olympics

in 2011 she was medically discharged because of her a r t hr i t i s . However, her sister Monica, then a member of Great Britain’s ablebodied s e n i o r women’s rowing squ ad, sug gested Relph could use her disability to her advantage and sign up for the Paralympic team. Relph took to the sport with the same obsessiveness with which she had chased a place in the military. She had three training sessions a day, starting at 6am, with a day off every three weeks. Today, she is at the top of the sport, and aiming to break down the taboos surrounding disability. She trains with able-bodied athletes and competes domestically along- side able-bodied rowers. Relph said: “We don’t want to be seen as disabled athletes but as elite athletes too. It’s really great for the Paralympic movement that I can train and compete alongside people who don’t have a disability.”

She will be aiming to make 28-year-old Monica proud in Rio next week, after her sibling missed out on a place in the Team GB squad for the Olympics bec ause of injur y. Monica, who has now retired from the sport, will be in Rio with other relatives to cheer her on.

Relph, who was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, also tipped the rowing squad to have its best performance yet at a Paralympic Games. Her boat was the only one to claim a medal in 2012. She said: “I feel really confident that our squad is in a really good place. Speaking from the para-rowing squad and from Team GB as a whole, we are most definitely the strongest team I’ve ever been part of.” Relph was talking to the Standard as she took part in a campaign which wil l see profi t s from P&G products sold at Sainsbury’s go towards funding athletes at the British Paralympic Association.