Tanni Grey-Thompson Paralympian & Disability Campaigner

Tanni Grey-Thompson is best known as a Paralympian but in more recent years she has become a respected campaigner on making public transport, and indeed or airlines, accessible to disabled people.

Tanni was born on 26th July 1969 in Cardiff, Wales and christened 'Carys Davina'. When her two-year-old sister, Sian, first sees her, she nicknamed her 'tiny', and very shortly afterwards it becomes Tanni.

Aged seven, Tanni suffered a blow when her spine collapsed resulting in Spina Bifida. By this time, she was already enrolled in school and despite visiting several “special schools” her parents were adamant that she should remain in mainstream education, something which would have been seen as revolutionary for its time. It was here that Tanni discovered her determination not to allow her disability to get in the way of what she wanted out of life and promptly set her on the path to success.

Tanni attended Birchgrove Primary School in Cardiff and was determined to find out for herself what she could and could not do. Tanni's parents were always supportive and encouraged her independent streak. After a long battle with the local authority they were able to secure a place at mainstream school.  Tanni attended St Cyres Comprehensive in Penarth and it was here that she first discovered an interest in sports.

Aged thirteen, Tanni realised that wheelchair racing was something that she could do. In her last year as a junior athlete she won the Junior National title over 100m and at 17 she became part of the British Wheelchair Racing Squad.

Her parents had always instilled a positive “can-do” attitude into her from a young age. Living in a normal family house without obvious alterations, Tanni was forced to learn how to get around without the need for assistance. Therefore the necessity for maintaining a fit and healthy body became second nature. She soon realised that practices such as negotiating stairs, crawling and other activities would only be possible if she kept up a certain standard of fitness. This spurred Tanni onto taking up wheelchair racing as a sport and thankfully triggered her competitive career.

Sporting Career

Back in the late eighties, the Paralympic movement had yet to gather momentum and was still perceived by many as the token equivalent of the able bodied games. Seoul 1988 was the first time that the Paralympics had been at the same setting as the Olympic Games. This was the setting for Tanni’s first Paralympics where she won bronze in the 400 metres.

In 1992 she claimed victory in the London Wheelchair Marathon, the first of six wins over her career and then went on to the Barcelona Paralympics, where she won four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800 metres and a silver in the 4x100m relay. It was at Barcelona that Tanni became the first women to break the 60 second barrier for 400m.

Tanni won the 800 metres gold in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics along with three silver medals in the 100, 200 and 400 metres.

At the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, Tanni returned won another four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800 metres.

Her final Paralympic Games as an athlete was Athens 2004, where she won gold in the 100m and 400m taking her medal tally to 11 golds.

Her total Paralympic Medal tally is 11 gold, 4 silvers and 1 bronze and added to that 5 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals at World Championships.

Over her career, Tanni broke 30 World Records on the track

Tanni has continued to be involved in sport and physical activity.  She is a Board Member of the London Marathon, the Sportsaid Foundation, the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and Join In. In addition to this she is also a Board Member of several organisations including Transport for London, the London Legacy Development Corporation and the London 2017 Organising Committee.

Career in television

In preparation for her retirement from the track in 2007, she expanded her television presenting career on BBC Wales and S4C, as well as BBC One.

She was the first female wheelchair user in the world to present on television on BBC2's ground-breaking series for disabled people From the Edge.

She has also presented BBC Wales X-ray, Big Welsh Challenge, Land of our Mothers, and worked for BBC Radio Wales, Five Live, and Radio Cleveland. She was a key member of the BBC commentary team at the Beijing Paralympics 2008, and of subsequent Paralympics.

Disability Rights Campaigner

Unlike many of her contemporaries, a career in sport was always a stepping stone for Tanni to fulfill her true life calling. Throughout her life, Tanni always had a great passion for campaigning for disability rights and always believed that disabled people should have the same opportunities as everyone else. Forever bewildered and disgraced by the low level discrimination which “the disabled” face on a daily basis, Tanni was determined to play her part in raising awareness of minorities in our society.

In 2010 Tanni became invested into the House of Lords and now tackles issues facing disabled people in twenty first century Britain. Baroness Grey-Thompson of Eaglescliffe in the County of Durham as she’s now better known to her fellow peers, became a tireless campaigner for disability rights.

For Tanni, this is now the second phase of her career and one that she really relishes. These are difficult times for disabled people with; fit to work schemes, the Personal Independence Plan restructure and the constant battle to maintain the Disabled Living Allowance. Therefore Tanni sees her role as an advocate for those who require that assistance to ensure it’s maintained. As she states, as a society, disabled people don’t have equality yet and so this benefit goes some way to reducing the gap between them and everyone else.

So Tanni remains as passionate as ever about the need to reduce the social divide between disabled and able bodied people in twenty first century Britain and although it’s a slow process, let’s hope her hard work pays off. It would be great to live in a world where there isn’t low level discrimination towards disabled people on a frequent basis. I’d love to go into a restaurant and the waiter asks me what I wish to order instead of talking to the person I’m sat next to. There’s still a long way to go before we achieve this level of universal understanding but with Tanni fighting the corner, I’m sure change is not too far away.

Last month it was announced that Tanni would head up The Aviation Accessibility Task and Finish Group. Its aim is to make flying accessible for all "from booking to baggage claim". When she was appointed to this position Tanni said "I don't think people understand the humiliation of being wrongly blamed for a delay and having all the passengers scowling at you."

Tanni is a consistent and vocal campaigner on making transport accessible for all. If you follow here twitter account you will read about her experiences of public transport and the airlines

In addition to her degree from Loughborough University Tanni has been awarded a number of Honorary Degrees. She has also been the Chancellor of Northumbria University since July 2015.