Crawley Paralympians Jodie Grinham MBE and Katie George Dunlevy picked up the Pride of Crawley at the Community Awards 2025. Katie-George was born in Crawley and has lived here for most of her life.Katie’s Father, John, is from Mountcharles in County Donegal which is why she is in the Irish squad. Katie has been racing for Ireland since 2011 and is Ireland's most successful female Paralympian. Winning 4 Gold and 4 Silver Paralympic Medals. Jodie went to school in Crawley and lives in the town. She also is a multi-award winning Paralympian and became the first ever pregnant Paralympic medallist in Paris 2024 and has been awarded an MBE for services to archery. Both paralympian’s visit schools and sports clubs to encourage children to follow their dreams. That whatever disability or situation, they might find themselves in that makes life hard it is still possible to dream and with focus, determination and hard work to succeed.
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00:00Thank you, Duff. Hello to everyone. It's a huge pleasure to be here for the 10th of our Crawley Community Awards and I can't lie, it's not my first rodeo. I've been here before and it's always hugely uplifting, a huge pleasure.
00:20And with saying that, Duff, a pleasure to see you again. When we first started we were younger men, but it's a pleasure to be here. And the winners are, great choice, Katie George Dunleavy and Jodie Grinnell.
00:39Katie's father, John, is from Mount Charles in County Donegal, which is why she's in the Irish squad. Katie's been racing for Ireland since 2011 and is Ireland's most successful female Paralympian, winning four gold and four silver Paralympic medals.
00:57Now, Jodie, who was not here this evening, went to school in Crawley. She is here this evening. Oh, there she is. Oh, dear, oh, dear. There you go. Carry on. Yes, you carry on. You would like to head over to Michael. He'll take care of everything whilst I continue to muck things up.
01:13So, Jodie went to school in Crawley and lives in the town. She also is a multi-award winning Paralympian and became the first ever pregnant Paralympic medalist in Paris 2024 and has been awarded an MBE for services to archery.
01:28Both Paralympians visit schools and sports clubs to encourage children to follow their dreams that whatever and whatever the disability or situation they might find themselves in that makes it life hard, it's still possible to dream with focus, determination and hard work to succeed.
01:47Well, congratulations on your awards. I'm going to ask the same questions about you. First, I'll start, Jodie. What do you remember about growing up in Crawley and did you train here?
01:55Uh, I did train here. I still train here. So, I still train over in Pete's Cottage, which is where Crawley Archery Club is. Um, and growing up, one of my biggest memories is actually Cherry Lane Adventure Playground.
02:07Cherry Lane, right, man.
02:09So, what's Winters?
02:11Exactly.
02:12Um, and yourself, did you, did you train in Crawley as well?
02:16Um, yeah, I train here and I'm kind of based in Port Stade, but I train here and then as I represent Ireland, I'm back and forth to Ireland and then I'm training camps for the squad.
02:24Fabulous.
02:25Um, now we would all love to know, um, what you're both doing now and what you're preparing for.
02:29I've just recently come back from a competition yesterday from Italy, um, two World Cup, um, road races, where I won three golds and a bronze, and, um,
02:36and, um, um, this year it's been a while since it's in August, um, for me it's been a bit of a quiet two years, um, last year was when I was a big year with Paris, the Paralympics, um, so it's been a quiet year, but I still have kind of a major thing, like, um,
02:54like, ambitions and, um, aiming for the World Championships and all.
02:57Two girls in bronze, a quiet year, she said.
03:00Um, how about yourself, what, what, what are you doing now and what are you preparing for?
03:04Uh, so I'm actually flying out to Italy on Friday, so if you just come back, I'm just going, uh, we've got the first leg of the European Cup, so it's the first tournament back from obviously having a baby, and then we're prepping for our World Championships, which are the end of the year in Korea, so it's lots of training, lots of getting ready.
03:20Well, massive congratulations to you both for your recognition, you absolutely deserve it, please keep inspiring the youngsters and please keep kicking some bum out on the global stage, congratulations, thank you so much.