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26
Aug
The Nidderdale Paralympian hoping to give Team GB a lift in Paris
The Olympic Games finished two weeks ago and they already seem to be fading into the past, but sports fans won’t have to wait long for their next fix – Paris is about to put on another fabulous display of human superpower.
The Paralympic Games start on Wednesday (August 28), and as many as 4,400 athletes from around the world will compete in 549 medal events across 22 sports, including para athletics, wheelchair rugby and blind football.
Of the UK’s 215 paralympians at these Games, 46 per cent are female – the highest proportion ever – and one of them works as a healthcare assistant in Nidderdale.
Lottie McGuinness, who is believed to be our district’s only representative at these Games, will be competing in the ‘55kg and under’ category for Team GB’s powerlifting squad, and is feeling positive.
Speaking to the Stray Ferret before setting off for the French capital, 22-year-old Lottie said:
I’m feeling very good. I feel like I’m in the best position possible. I’m lucky that I’ve had no setbacks. I’ve just been doing all my drills – the nutrition, the sleep etc. It’s the small building blocks that make the wall.
Lottie, who lives in Darley, went to Highfield Prep School, Harrogate Ladies’ College and St Aidan’s Sixth Form before graduating last year from Leeds Trinity University with a BSc in Sports and Exercise Science.
Inspired by five-times Paralympic gold medal winner Ellie Simmonds, Lottie spent much of her youth in the pool, but was spotted by the British powerlifting coaches when she visited the 2019 National Dwarf Games. At their suggestion, she tried the sport out at Loughborough University, and enrolled in the National Talent Pathway.
She proved to be a natural, and after just two years of training, she made her international debut at the 2021 World Junior Championships, where she claimed a silver medal, before collecting a bronze at the Manchester Powerlifting World Cup.
The process to qualify for Paris started later that same year, and Lottie has been getting steadily better at every event since.
At the 2021 World Championships in Tblisi, Georgia, she lifted 80kg. In the same city the following year for the European Championships, she lifted 85kg.
At consecutive World Cup events in Dubai, she lifted 95kg and 100kg, and then she was back in Tblisi this June, competing to earn herself a place on Team GB.
Lottie has produced a string of personal bests over the last three years.
She said:
In Georgia, I felt like I was in a good place. It was far from certain – there were other athletes ahead of me.
I’ve always had a positive mental attitude, and I had this weird feeling that I was going to be picked.
In the end, the competitor ahead of Lottie was moved into a different weight class, and then Lottie turned in another personal best of 104kg. She said:
It was such a weird feeling when my coach told me I’d probably done it. It was surreal – a feeling I’ll never get back. I just burst into tears.
Nevertheless, Lottie still has a huge amount to do to have any chance of winning a medal. Lottie is currently ranked sixth in her category, and there’s a gulf between the three best and the rest. Egypt’s Rehab Ahmed has lifted 135kg; Ukraine’s Mariana Shevchuk has managed 127kg; and Turkey’s Besra Duman is on 123kg.
The next three – Thailand's Kamolpen Kraratpet, Vietnam’s Hoang Tuyet Loan Chau, and Lottie – have tightly-packed personal bests of 107kg, 106kg and 104kg respectively.
Lottie can lift about twice her own body weight.
Lifting her way past such a strong field will be a daunting task, yet Lottie is remaining realistic but hopeful. She said:
In Los Angeles in 2028, there will definitely be an expectation to medal, but this time around there’s no expectation to medal – I just want to go and soak up the atmosphere and enjoy it. Whatever happens, happens.
Officially, 107kg is the target, but I’ve got a number above that in my head: 110kg would just sound better!
But you just don’t know what will happen on the day. For example, when an Australian diver slipped on the board at the Olympics, it allowed the British pair [Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen] to win bronze. So you just never know!
Lottie watched as much of the Olympics as possible, and says it was “really inspiring, especially now”. She said:
I’m thinking, ‘I’m going to be there soon’. It’s like, ‘What is my life?’!
Lottie heading out to compete
She took the Eurostar to Paris on Thursday and so has a decent length of time to put in some last-minute preparation. The Paralympic Games open this Wednesday (August 28), but the powerlifting competitions start a week later. Lottie will be in action on Thursday, September 5.
And the world will be watching – more than 1.75 million tickets have already been sold for events at the Paralympic Games, which will come to a close on September 8.
But as the Paralympic torch burns down and her event draws ever closer, Lottie says that nerves aren't a problem. She said:
I’m excited. The pressure was on during qualifying, but now it’s off and I just want to enjoy the experience.
It’s almost like a home Games as it’s just across the Channel. It’s going to be an incredible competition.
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