00:00What was it like as a 16-year-old going to something as big as the Paralympics?
00:04Orlando would have been in 96, right, yeah?
00:07I hadn't really been abroad that much.
00:10So to fly to America on my own without my parents was pretty scary.
00:20But yeah, it was a great experience.
00:22And I learned a lot by doing that and, yeah, it gained a lot of confidence.
00:31And, yeah, it was really, really something special to do with that.
00:37Yeah, it's really tough when you come to the end of your career
00:41and you're now faced with that scenario or like, what do you do next?
00:49It's pretty scary.
00:51But, yeah, definitely, you definitely have to embrace the skills that you develop as an athlete.
00:59You know, like having that mindset, that growth mindset where you want to learn,
01:08want to get better, you want to improve, you know,
01:12you embrace challenges you don't shy away from adversity.
01:18I'm actually, I'm not working with British guys.
01:22I'm actually, I'm a communication manager.
01:27It was brought about by Seneca,
01:32forces and athletes pathway,
01:35and they are, and it's a programme looking to bring athletes into a corporate environment.
01:49Young people who are looking at maybe following in your footsteps,
01:53what advice would you give them for planning for life after sport?
01:57You need to keep a good balance in your life.
02:02So don't get, like, don't go all in, like, you've got to have a good balance.
02:09So if you just focus on one thing, you tend to burn out.
02:15You know, you get bored, you know, if you just do one thing all the time,
02:21you get bored, you lose that love for what you do.
02:26And then as you get towards the end of your career,
02:30I think, yeah, really start to think about what you enjoy doing
02:36and that could transfer to your life beyond competing in order to start to think about
02:48those skills you've survived in your career and how they can help you
02:53and really think about what you want to do in the future.
Comments