‘I used to see my leg as ugly, now I know it’s an incredible tool’
PARALYMPIAN STEF REID TELLS ADELINE IZIREN HOW AN ACCIDENT SHAPED HER LIFE AS AN ATHLETE
WHEN the curtain goes up on the Paralympic games in Tokyo next week, one of Britain’s biggest medal hopes will be record-breaking track and field champion Stef Reid.
A five-time world record holder, this will be her fourth Paralympics and she has yet to go home without a medal. She competes mainly in sprint events and long jump in the T44 categories, and won a bronze medal in the 200m sprint in Beijing in 2008 and silver medals in the long jump at London 2012 and Rio 2016. T44 is a classification that applies to those with a single below knee amputation or an athlete who can work with moderately reduced function in one or both legs. In Stef’s case, it was an amputation. Always sporty, as a teenager she was an energetic and fearless rugby player. Confident and accomplished, she was considering turning her passion into her profession.
But then, aged 15, she suffered a life-changing accident. Out on what was supposed to be a fun boat trip with friends, Stef fell into the water, with the motor severing part of her right leg. To start with, she had no idea of the seriousness of the injury.
‘I was not in pain, but in discomfort,’ she recalls, ‘and aware that something was wrong because my leg wasn’t moving properly and I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t bend my big toe.’ Her foot was amputated in an operation that saved her life. But that life had changed irrevocably.
‘I felt lost,’ says Stef. ‘I didn’t know who I was anymore, what my life would look like, or what made me special. It probably took me four or five years to fully come to terms with it. There were days when I would go from being totally fine at school to spending an hour crying, then back to totally fine.’
She pays tribute to those who helped her through some of those toughest moments.
‘It was really hard on my parents because there was nothing they could do, except just support me,’ she says.
‘My brother and sister were amazing with their support because the accident really impacted their lives as it meant I got so much attention from my parents, even though I didn’t want this to be the case.‘
She was fitted with an ‘every day’ leg and a sports one, and made it back to he rugby pitch surprisingly quickly, but the frustration was s till immense.
‘It’s a tough sport and now I was getting slammed and tackled at time when I used to be able to nip through gaps. I had to take a step back, because I was having a lot of difficulty coming to terms with the athlete I was before and the athlete I became, a comparison that just took the joy away from the sport.’
Stef began to try other sports – swimming, athletics and cycling – in the hope of finding a new passion. It was not easy, she admits.
‘For the first time I felt such insecurity about my body. I was trying to figure out my body again and there is no way to do that without a spotlight on you because when you have an artificial leg you stand out all the time.’
But she persevered and the benefits of her success on the track had far-reaching benefits, beyond an impressive trophy cabinet. ‘Years of standing in front of a crowd and performing in a sports stadium has transformed my career off the field, as it has given me the confidence to walk into a boardroom and feel I have something to contribute. Initially, I was always trying to hide it, but when I started playing sport, I went from seeing this leg as a really ugly, embarrassing thing, to an incredible tool I can use to run.’ Stef now has a collection of legs depending on what she is doing, including a high-heeled one, which she describes as ‘really cool – like a cool fashion accessory’. There’s also a day leg and three sports legs, including a competition jump leg, which can only be used for running in a straight line and taking off to jump.
Stef knows that retirement from the sport she loves is inevitable, because ‘being an athlete is this really annoying career where there comes a stage when you are not going to get better, no matter how hard you try.’
But Stef plans to participate in sport ‘forever’ after her track and field career ends and looks forward to continuing her love of swimming, yoga and running. She already has a successful broadcasting career.
So how does she feel about the boating accident, over 20 years on? ‘As great as artificial legs are, nothing compares to having your own feet and being able to feel them and so I do regret it. But I would never want to change who I have become. When you think you are going to die, the things that are important become very clear. The accident changed and shaped me, and I like who I am now, and I am thankful for who I am now.’
Sport proved to be a tool that enabled Stef to heal and grow as a person. ‘It gave me back my fire and fierceness,’ she says. Now, inspired by her own experience and recent research on the benefits of sport, Stef wants to see more women of all abilities taking part in sport. She is working with Always, in partnership with the charity Sported, to encourage more women to play sport.
‘Through sport I learnt the value of hard work, how to deal with failure, and how to be resilient. It also helped me build confidence to explore so many things outside of my sporting career, that I might not have considered before, such as starting a career as a broadcaster.
‘I want young girls to be able to experience the benefits of sport just as I did and still do.’