In this seventh episode of the season of the Her Spirit podcast BBC Breakfast presenter Louise Minchin and BBC Triathlon presenter Annie Emmerson talk to Dame Sarah Storey.
Sarah has competed in 7 Paralympic Games (3 in cycling as Sarah was previously a swimmer), Sarah is now Great Britain’s longest serving athlete.
Sarah began her Paralympic career as a swimmer, competing in four games: Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, picking up a combined total of five gold, eight silver and three bronze medals.
Following Athens Sarah decided to make the switch to para-cycling and has enjoyed incredible success as she not only dominated para-cycling events but has also enjoyed significant success in non-disabled events.
Having given birth to her second child in October 2017, Sarah announced her return to international competition with a dominant display to win two gold at the 2018 Paracycling Road World Championships and since then at the 2019 Track World Championships Sarah won 2 gold and a silver, along with securing victory in the Omnium test event and briefly holding the Flying 200m Time Trial world record before it was broken two minutes later.
She was appointed at in May 2019 as Active Travel Commissioner for the Sheffield City Region. Her role will involves championing active travel and working alongside Mayor Dan Jarvis to create a region in which more people travel on foot, by bike or by public transport.
She talks openly about her relationship with food, which in her teens wasn't a very positive one, and being close to being hospitalised with an eating disorder. Her approach now is about being strong and not being obsessed with numbers to determine your own health.
Her mantra is about being the best version of you and the team hashtag #BestVersionOfYou.
These podcasts have been made possible through the support of Medichecks www.medichecks.com and Sport England www.sportengland.org.
For more information on Her Spirit go to www.herspirit.co.uk