From boat accident to world champion...
SPRINTER and long jump Paralympian Stefanie Reid has recalled the struggles she faced after being involved in an horrific boating accident.
Stefanie, who lives near Loughborough with husband Brent Lakatos and trains at Loughborough University, revealed exclusively to the Echo how she coped following the accident, which resulted in her right foot being amputated.
She said: “I guess obviously the biggest thing was having to basically reframe your life after I had a very realistic plan. I wanted to be an elite rugby player and everything in my life was focused on that - at 15 you think you are invincible and can conquer the world and you are hit with this very big dose of reality.
“I was in a boating accident, I was away on holiday and just got run over by a boat’s propellers and got told that ‘we’ve got to amputate your leg’ - it’s just really the unknown.
“Suddenly I had no idea what my life was going to look like, everything that I had hoped for and dreamed of doing no longer seemed possible and you basically have to start over, and it was really, really difficult.
“It was hard to motivate myself - for some days in hospital you are sad, you’re frustrated - it sounds strange but you are also mourning.
“I just felt lost and I didn’t know if I wanted to experience life in this way. I didn’t know if I wanted to adjust my expectations.
“It was really hard and I think it’s one of those things where it wasn’t something I could pull myself out of and the best thing that happened was, seven days after the accident, this nurse walked in and she really just changed my life, she basically looked at me and asked me the question ‘so what, what’s your excuse? I know this has happened, but so what?’.
“She was the first person that walked into that room and didn’t feel sorry for me. She looked at me and actually expected something better than moping and she challenged me and I kind of realised, in that moment, I like the challenge.
“It was a process - the first thing was actually getting out of bed and getting round the ward on crutches independently.
From there suddenly the world of sport opened up and I thought I want to run better than anybody else, I’m going to jump further than anybody else and it was just such a powerful lesson.”
And Stefanie, now aged 32, certainly did change her life - she competes for Great Britain, is a five-time world record holder, reigning world champion (London 2017 long jump), and triple Paralympic medallist in the long jump (2016, 2012) and 200m sprint (2008).
She has an honours degree in biochemistry, and away from the track works as a broadcaster, professional speaker, actor, and model.
She said: “You can’t control what happens in life, it’s fine to plan and to have dreams, but it’s about dealing with reality, what’s in front of you and making the best of it, and realising that very few things in life are good and bad in themselves, it’s how you look at it and make of it.”
Stefanie will be part of the broadcasting team of the Invictus Games in Toronto from September 23-30 and is committed to competing, as well as her husband, in Tokyo 2020.
and she was full of praise for what the Invic- tus Games stands for: “The point of it is to help people come through situations that are discouraging and that are really hard, and that it would be really easy to sit and give up.
“You don’t have to have a catastrophic injury, you don’t have to be a soldier, we’ve all been in that position where life is tough and we can all relate to how that feels like.
“I think it is going to be an incredible week because it is going to be the showcase of how to deal with life when it gets really tough.”
And Stefanie was full of praise for the facilities at Loughborough University.
She said: “I love the Loughborough set up. I just feel so spoiled on the Loughborough campus because you just have this huge concentration of the best facilities, the best expertise, all in this one location and you get to do it alongside other elite athletes.
“It’s just fantastic. I’ve improved so much since being here.”
Stephanie spoke to the Echo as part of the I-Conquered campaign, which looks at the different troubles and issues people have overcome to be where they are in business today.