15-year-old Oliver Scott from Faversham aims high for a 2028 Paralympic spot

KentOnline / KMTV

After making waves in the Para-triathlon scene, Ollie Scott joins us on Invicta Sport to look back on his success so far.

Transcript

00:00 Now it's time to meet our first guest this evening. Oliver Scott is Favrecham's next big star,

00:05 having come second overall overall place in this year's Paratriathlon Super Series.

00:09 The 15-year-old has his eyes set on a Paralympic spot one day, but in the meantime is taking on

00:14 competitors twice his age and is even holding his own in able-bodied competitions too. Well,

00:19 I'm very pleased to say that Oli is joining me now in the studio. Oli, thank you very much for

00:24 coming here today and welcome to Invicta Sport. I just have to ask, how did you get into triathlon?

00:29 Because you didn't start off with triathlon when you started getting active, it was

00:32 athletics first, is that right? Yeah, athletics. So yeah, I've been doing athletics since I was

00:38 eight, so I've always been quite sporty. And then over lockdown, I just took the chance to reflect

00:46 and I thought that, you know, athletics was sort of, it's very samey, you know,

00:53 you're sort of doing the same stuff. And I just thought, let's go for something different.

00:58 Why not take on three sports at once instead of just one? I mean, what is it about then? I mean,

01:04 you know, of all three disciplines, have you got like a favourite or is it just kind of all three

01:10 of them, is that kind of you just juggling it in your mind all the time? Yeah, cycling is probably

01:13 my favourite. It's just different, you know, running, although it's like the one that I'm

01:19 probably best at, I just, because I've been doing it for so long, cycling is just different and

01:26 yes, more enjoyable. So yeah, I like cycling the most. I suppose it's something that you can always

01:31 be sort of working towards, you know, as you progress through your career. And you've had

01:34 quite a successful career so far. I was mentioning there, you go up against people double your age.

01:38 I mean, just from the picture we've got here, I mean, these guys look much older than you.

01:42 Do you think about that at all when you go into a competition, who you're going up against?

01:46 No, I mean, obviously, we're all put in the same category for a reason, you know, we've all got

01:50 similar disabilities. So it's just like, age doesn't matter as much. It's just like,

01:56 compete against who you're sort of meant to be competing against.

01:59 Yeah, of course. And tell me about this super series that you take part in. You're kind of

02:05 going all around the country, aren't you, throughout the sort of season? How well did

02:09 you do this year? Yeah, so this year I came second. So it's my first season competing in

02:16 this. So yeah, basically, it's just a series of, I think, five races. I could only do four this

02:23 season. But, and yeah, depending on where you finish in each race, you get a certain number

02:29 of points and then your three best points go towards your overall ranking. I mean,

02:35 there's which is why I came second. Yeah, I mean, a fantastic effort. I mean,

02:38 to miss out one race and still come second. Yeah. What's the sort of target next year,

02:42 then, as you go into next season? Obviously, I want to win it. So next season,

02:46 I can do all five races. The thing that meant I couldn't do the one, won the ones this year was

02:54 because of my age. But yeah, next season, hopefully I'll be able to do all five and

02:59 hopefully win a couple of the individual races and then hopefully get top spot on the podium

03:05 overall. Yeah, absolutely. Well, good luck to you. Now, you're also on the British Paratriathlons

03:10 Talent Pathway Programme. You've been there for over the past year now, is that correct?

03:13 Yeah. What's that kind of like? Has that been

03:15 kind of a step up in the sort of training regime? It's been, yeah, obviously my training has had to

03:20 increase, but it's quite nice and relaxed. We go on a few training camps, which are very

03:28 interesting, relaxing. So yeah, you get away from a lot of sort of the stresses at home of,

03:35 you know, having to go to training and that because it's all just there. So yeah, but

03:40 you know, they're very supportive and yeah, they help you take steps in the right direction.

03:45 So it's good. What's it like when you're at school,

03:48 when you're with your mates and you're off sort of training like four or five times a week,

03:52 is that the right amount? I mean, are they kind of looking at you going like, wow,

03:56 how are you managing to do this while they're just off whatever it is they do?

03:59 Yeah, it is like hard shuffling, social life with training. But you know, I have,

04:06 obviously on weekends I am training, but you know, I'm not training the whole day. So, you know,

04:13 yeah, I'm shuffling it with schoolwork, but there's still plenty of time to like catch up

04:17 with friends and that. So, but yeah, I think they are sometimes a bit like, why?

04:23 Well, why is it then? I mean, you've got this sort of goal of the Paralympics in the future.

04:33 Is that kind of the ultimate goal for you? Yeah, that's always been a goal for me. You know,

04:39 even when I was doing running, I've always wanted to compete at the highest level against the best

04:43 competitors in the world. And yeah, that's still the goal. Hopefully I'll be able to get to 2028.

04:50 But we'll see, because there's only a small amount of numbers that go in the whole world.

04:55 So I mean, it's so competitive, but of course you are so competitive as well. I mean,

04:59 I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you very much for joining us today. Just before we go,

05:03 I want to ask, you're going into the winter now, what do you do over the winter break?

05:08 Normally I would be doing cross country, but for this year I'm giving it a miss. So

05:14 just continuing the training. I'll probably be upping it going into next season as I'm getting

05:20 a bit older. But yeah, just continue the training, turbos, long runs, just keeping it going.

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