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Deepa Malik

After being paralysed from the waist down, Malik decided to take up swimming, motor cycling and athletics, all at the astonishing age of 36!

In 1999, Malik was diagnosed with a spinal tumour, having had 3 spinal surgeries and 183 stiches between her shoulder blades within the space of 14 years. This was a very difficult period for herself and her family, especially as her husband was fighting in a war and one of her daughters was unwell. The fact that Malik even attempted to participate in these sports after knowing her physical limitations shows great determination and perseverance, that is truly inspiring to all. At the impressive age of 45 when most athletes are considering retirement, Malik’s story is just beginning. She became one of India’s 19 Paralympians at Rio 2016. Her training for the Paralympics involved joining the Himalayan Motorsports Association and impressively completing an 8-day, 1,700 km bike ride to 18,000 feet in sub – zero temperatures. To improve her strength for cycling, Malik took up swimming. However, her ability in the waters was just as incredible and she broke multiple records in the sport. All of Malik’s hard work and fighting spirit really paid off as she broke the world record 4 times. You are mistaken if you think her story has ended, she also did javelin and shot put at the Rio Paralympics! Not only are all of Malik’s accomplishments something to look up to, but also her mental strength, commitment and her flexible mindset for the variety of sports she participated in.

Izzy T,

Rowing Rep

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Steph Houghton

Steph Houghton is best known for being captain and the centre back for the England women’s football team. In the first ever debut for England she helped the team to win 6-0 against Russia!

She has shown grit through her career as she suffered injuries before the World Cup in 2007 and then again later before the Euro 2009 but she persevered and went to the World cup in 2011. Houghton has also gone to the Olympics representing GB!

Steph Houghton has shown her ability from a young age when she went to a camp with England for the U16s. Her current club is Manchester City but she has also played for Sunderland, Leeds and Arsenal.

In 2015 she earnt £65k were as the best paid woman footballer got £1.9m. Even more shockingly Cristiano Ronaldo received £288,000 a week! These are just a few figures but already show just how big the divide in woman’s football is not only compared to men but other countries!

In 2016 she was appointed a MBE for the services she has provided for football. She has said that part of her motivation every day is to be an inspiration to young girls and I think it is very clear that she is definitely achieving this!

Saskia

Rowing Rep

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Charlotte Edwards

Charlotte Edwards is an ex-England Cricket captain and has been the figure head for the women’s game. In her 20-year career she scored more than 10,000 runs and was captain for 10-years. She was the youngest woman of her time to have played for England, and made her debut in New Zealand at Guildford at the age of 16. Since then she has gotten involved in promoting the game and helping organisations to help the next generation to ensure that the women’s side of the sport is promoted and encouraged from a young age. I was lucky enough to play a game of cricket with her, along with Phoebe, representing Wimbledon High in the GDST 1st XI cricket team last summer in our game against the MCC to promote the awareness of female cricket.

Emily Ng,

Swimming Rep

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Katelyn Ohashi

My inspirational sportswoman is Katelyn Ohashi, the UCLA gymnast whose floor routine to Michael Jackson recently went viral with a perfect score of 10.0! (Would thoroughly recommend a watch – it has had over 34 million views 😊)

What I love about Katelyn is that her enthusiasm and joy for her sport shines through during her routine; she genuinely looks like she’s having the best time ever. She seems to effortlessly perform extremely difficult flips, splits and tricks whilst having fun with her teammates and dancing to music.

Katelyn was once destined for the Olympics and had even beaten Simone Biles in 2013, when she got injured and reached had physical and mental breaking point. She was consistently body shamed and had lost her love for the sport at Elite level.

Therefore, what I find most inspiring about Katelyn Ohashi is that she managed to find her passion again, and is now completely re-defining gymnastics from being a sport of discipline and neatness, to one in which mesmerising choreography and enjoyment are the most important elements!

Millie H,

Gymnastics Rep

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Andy Murray

Andy Murray

Andy Murray is a phenomenal and dedicated athlete, whose determination and passion for tennis is incredibly motivational. Although he is very talented, his style of game was not suited to winning the top tournaments. He worked very hard, especially with Ivan Lendl, to make his game more aggressive in order to beat the exceptional players such as Nadal, Federer and Djokovic. His persistence and determination set an example for tennis players and non tennis players alike. Hopefully, he recovers from his hip injury and we see is playing career continue!

Izzy T,

Tennis Rep

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Dina Asher-Smith

Dina Asher-Smith is right now the face of British Athletics. Currently she holds the British record for the 100 metres and 200 metres and in 2018 European Championships in Berlin, Asher-Smith won both the 100 and 200 metres as well as the 4 x 100 m relay. In 2014 she won the World Junior Championships for the 100 metres when she was 19 years old. She became the first British woman to legally run under 11 seconds in July 2015 for the 100 metres. Last October she was named women’s European Athlete of the Year which is, needless to say, no easy task!

Dina Asher-Smith graduated from King’s College London in 2017, which shows just how incredible she can time manage doing a degree and training full time and this gives me inspiration if ever I feel that I am falling behind with work. What separates Dina from other athletes is how down to earth she is. I was fortunate to meet her during the BT Action Woman Awards 2018 (which she won) and she was saying that hard work is the key to all her success and anyone can follow her lead.

If you haven’t watched it, I thoroughly recommend watching a clip of the 4x100m relay in the European Championships. It is amazing watching her run – she is the fourth leg of the British team and she comes from being in fourth to winning it, by in what in sprinting terms is an enormous lead.

https://video.eurosport.co.uk/athletics/european-championships/2018/dina-asher-smith-lands-third-gold-with-brilliant-anchor-leg-in-4x100m-relay_vid1115443/video.shtm

She is a truly inspirational athlete and has managed to overcome many obstacles in her life to be one of the nation’s greatest athletes.

Saskia B

Rowing Rep

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Inspirational Sports Woman

Inspirational sports person: Serena Williams

This week’s inspirational sports person is Serena Williams. I have chosen her because of her journey to become one of the world’s greatest tennis players. She is widely known and has worked immensely hard in order to get where she is today. She has 4 Olympic gold medals and 4 Grand Slams to her name, and won sports-person of the year by the magazine ‘Sports Illustrated’. The reason she is such an inspiration to me is because throughout her journey despite having received racism and sexism from fans and tennis administrators, she is still so strong and it takes a lot of mental strength to overcome these challenges and use them positively in order to make you, and your game stronger.

Additionally, in the recent US Open in September 2018 she called out a double-standard and challenged the way society thinks women should behave when playing sport in comparison to men. During the finals match against Osaka, Williams received a code violation for racquet abuse (hitting her racquet on the floor), but as later summarised in an interview “when a woman is emotional, she’s ‘hysterical’ and she’s penalised for it. When a man does the same, he’s ‘outspoken’ and there are no repercussions”. I think that she is an inspiration, not only to sport players but to all people out there.

Emily Ng,

Swimming rep

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Inspirational Sportswoman of the week

My inspirational sportswoman this week is Natalia Cohen who in a team of four rowed across the Pacific Ocean from America to Australia. They have released a documentary, which is available on Netflix (yay!) so, if you’re looking for an inspiring story about perseverance and the significance of sisterhood, I would thoroughly recommend.